Tenhawks Alexander Harris and the Shadow Council
by marius1117
Summary: It is a repost of Tenhawks story that is on wayback machine. It is BTVS/Harry Potter/Addams family crossover. A step to one side in time, a shift to another in space, and you would be surprised at the changes one might wreak on an unsuspecting world.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer:

This story is Tenhawks, I own nothing. I don't know why Tenhawk only posted 2 chapters of this story on FFN, but that how it is. I managed to find a copy of this story on wayback machine of his personal website (fanfiction tenhawkpresents com), which is dead now, with a bit more than 2 chapters, and decided to post it here, because I like it, and I don't want it to disappear. If Tenhawk doesn't like that I reposted his story, he should contact me and I will take it down. If anyone has a copy of this story that has more chapters, please contact me, I would like to read them.

Story:

* * *

Salem Massachusetts.

The Explosion that rocked the small estate outside Salem would likely have gone entirely unnoticed had it been even slightly smaller. The fact that it threw debris up into the air almost three thousand feet, however, and rained it down on the town of Salem put an end to any hope the Governing Board had of keeping it quiet from the locals.

Luckily, they were tolerant of such things in Salem, having learned a long time ago that it was best to ignore the unusual as much as possible. The last time they'd really paid attention to the small estate had been in Sixteen Ninety Three, and they'd paid a price for trying to draw the Institute into their petty games of morality, religion, and politics.

Even so, the damage control was difficult, as the local media started looking for the cause of the explosion and source of the raining debris, locals began expounding on old legends and things best left quiet, and the Institute found itself rather tightly pressed and actually unable to put their normal level of enthusiasm into repairs and such.

Additionally, the explosion was proving... difficult to... well, stop.

* * *

"Good Lord, Arthur, what were they mixing in there?" Stephen Smythe muttered, eyeing the gout of flame that was still coming from the Alchemical Laboratories.

"I have my doubts we'll ever entirely know, Stephen," Arthur Fitzpatrick sighed, rubbing his long beard as he subtly shook his head. "I suppose we should move on to new business, however."

Stephen rolled his eyes.

Only Arthur could speak casually of new business while a third of the institute's grounds was covering in what basically amounted to lava, and choking black smoke continued to pour into the sky. He supposed that being a hundred and twenty years old had a generally calming effect on the man.

"Very well," He sighed, "I suppose that the most pressing is new students. The explosion has destroyed much of our Freshman facilities, including the Dorms."

"Yes, I know, Stephen." Arthur sighed, "I believe I have a solution, however."

"Oh?" Stephen asked, idly, his mind trying to identify where they would build new facilities.

"Until we get this under control, rebuilding is... of course... out of the question," Arthur said thoughtfully, "And I'm reliably informed that it will be at least six months before we can shut down the eruptions."

Stephen groaned.

"Six months? Sir, that's intolerable."

"I quite agree, however reality often is." Arthur said in kind. "What I have proposed, and the Board has accepted, is that we offer new students placement overseas for the next year."

"Oh, Sir, you know that's not going to go over well with the parents. Too many of their families left Europe specifically to keep their children from growing up with that bunch of lunatics."

Arthur glared at him crossly, but Stephen merely stared back unapologetically until the old man sighed.

"Yes, well, be that as it may I think we can convince them. It is only for a year, after all, and it's good for a child to be exposed to other cultures."

"Bog Rot." Stephen opined.

"Your opinion is, of course, noted. However, the proposal has been voted on and passed." Arthur told him, "We'll divide up the new names and make the presentations to the parents. If they refuse, well there is the option of home schooling."

"Five gets you ten that's what most do."

"Do I look like easy money, Stephen?"

* * *

Stephen Smythe sighed as he looked over the lists, casually dividing up the names and trying to determine who would go where, at least in theory. In practice it was futile, but there would be some who would accept.

He eyed the lists carefully, noting which families could afford proper home schooling, and shifted those names lower on the list. The offer would still be made, of course, but they were far less likely to accept. He bit his lower lip when one of those names crossed his attention, however, and hesitated.

This family could certainly afford home schooling, and in fact he was surprised they had submitted their daughter to the lists to begin with. That said, getting one of THEM out of the country... there were some people who'd worship him for that alone, and the family as a whole tended to be very close... who knew? They might all leave for a while.

He moved that name far up on the list.

It was wishful thinking, he supposed, but he needed what bright spots he could find.

He chuckled softly to himself then looked over the rest of the names. No standouts that he could see, not after THEM... but two names did catch his eye. Not because of the names, but rather the location.

'Oh Lord, we have two possible students growing up in Sunnydale?' He stared, "Good God."

He reached for the intercom, "Sam, could you come in here please?"

A moment later Samantha Hennessy strode into the room, her tailored suit formed impeccably to her body, and she nodded, "Yes Sir?"

"I need you to get a recruiter out to Sunnydale immediately."

"Sunnydale?" Her eyes bugged.

"Yes, I'm afraid we just picked up a couple names there," He sighed, "Just showed up on the roles recently, I assume, or we'd have sent someone out there long ago."

"Uh... Yes Sir. The names?"

"Alexander Harris and Willow Rosenberg."

* * *

Westfield New Jersey, 0001 Cemetery Lane.

The recruiter winced as he looked at the house, shivering at even the *thought* of going inside the grounds. Everyone in the Community new full well to steer clear of the Addams', it was an unwritten rule so widely known that it had actually been written down. He steeled himself and pushed open the gate, steadily making his way up the lane to the house.

Once there he mentally reviewed the thirty eight poisonous or otherwise deadly species of fauna and flora living in their front yard and made a silent note to have the rest of the area combed by members of The Force who specialized in mystical cleanup. He didn't expect that they'd find anything, the Addams were many things but clumsy was not one of them, but it wouldn't do for many of the examples he'd spotted in the fifteen foot walk to make their way into normal New Jersey.

He stopped at the door and sighed, again steeling himself, then pressed the bell.

A scream greeted his efforts and he grimaced.

Footsteps were heard a moment later, and the door swung slowly open.

"Youuuuuuuu Rannnnnnnng?" A seven foot tall monstrosity demanded in a long drawn out groan, looking down at him with a calmly detached appearance.

The recruiter forced himself not to run.

'It's not a Golem, it's not a Golem, it's not a golem,' He told himself, hoping it was true. Again he had to remind himself that the Addams' weren't actually evil. Far from it, in truth. They were, in fact, one of the most well-known mainstays against Evil in the new World. The problem was that only someone who access to their full files, and a Bureau Seer, would ever believe it.

"Yes, Recruiter Henri to see Mr. and Mrs. Addams."

The Golem... 'Not a golem. NOT a golem...' just stepped back and turned away, apparently expecting to be followed. Simon Henri took a deep breath and did as he was bade.

* * *

Sunnydale, California.

Elizabeth Berkley shuddered. She truly hated being the Junior Recruiter assigned to Los Angeles. Whenever there was some little bit of nastiness that involved one of the Institutes students SHE had to be the one sent to handle it. The entire damned state was a loony bin, in her opinion, what with the demons and hellmouth burning so brightly.

It probably had to do with the geological activity of the area, or so most people believed. Geomancy was an ancient practice, almost entirely lost today, but the power in many of those old monoliths was proof enough in its potency. Much of the state was a power sink of one type or another, such that even the normal types were affected.

One didn't have to look much further than Hollywood or San Francisco for that.

She sighed and determined to get on with it, however, and came to her first stop.

The residence of one Alexander Harris.

She looked up at the number by the door, confirming it, and knocked.

After a long wait the door opened and she found herself looking down at a young boy of ten years.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Are your parents home, Alexander?"

The boy stared at her for a long time, then nodded. "Mom's here."

"May I speak to her?"

"I guess."

The boy backed into the house, shrugged, and left the door open. "She's in the kitchen."

Elizabeth sighed and stepped over the threshold, noting the total absence of any protective wards or even the most basic level of protections that even normal households enjoyed.

'Perhaps they just moved in,' she thought, then instantly recognized that wasn't the case as the place looked far too... well, 'lived in' was being charitable. She shook her head, put the thoughts out of her mind, and made her way into the kitchen.

"Mom! There's a lady here to see you!"

Elizabeth's expression soured involuntarily as she noted the open bottle on the table and the smell of liquor floating up from the woman inside. 'Oh lord, I hate these calls.'

"Who're you?" The woman asked, with just a barely detectable slur.

"I'm Elizabeth Berkley, with the Salem Institute..."

That threw a shot of steel into the woman's spine almost instantly as she froze in place and the room became very quiet.

"Mom? What's wrong?" The boy asked.

"Quiet for a moment, Alexander," Jessica Lavelle said softly as she focused on the woman in her kitchen. "What are you doing here?"

"Alexander's name has come up on our roles and..."

"He's... He's one?"

"A Wizard? Yes, of course." Elizabeth said, sounding confused.

"I didn't think... I'm not, you see... My family didn't take it well..."

"Ah." Elizabeth sighed, beginning to get the picture. Some of the older families were still mired in the Old World, unfortunately, "I suppose they called you a Squib among other names?"

Jessica sighed, but nodded as she looked at her bottle.

The Recruiter shook her head and examined her notebook, "Yes, unfortunately that doesn't surprise me. Your husband, he's the same?"

"Yes."

"The Harris family and the Lavelles, unsurprising I suppose." Elizabeth sighed yet again. "Both originate from Ireland, your lines are not the oldest in America of course, but they are still as close to aristocrats as we tend to get. A lot of familiar inertia gets built up there, I'm afraid."

"But... Alexander is?"

"On our lists, yes." Elizabeth smiled slightly, getting a better feel for the situation. Perhaps it wasn't entirely unsalvageable after all. "He would have been enrolled in the Institute for next year, however..."

"Would have?" Jessica paled, "Why? What's wrong with him?"

"Absolutely nothing, I'm sure. No, the problem is a slight accident in the Alchemical Laboratories has left the Institute unable to handle a Freshman year in the next session," Elizabeth sighed, "For that reason we're offering support with home schooling..."

"But we can't teach him... we... we just *can't*..."

"Yes, we're aware, the other option is overseas schooling," Elizabeth suggested. "We've contacted several respected institutions, including your families traditional alma mater in Scotland, if you wish we can arrange a one year scholarship there while we work out other options closer to home."

"Scholarship? We can't afford much..." Jessica said, "Our families..."

"In this case I believe that we can arrange tuition and transport. That covers room and board, though Alexander will require any of his own spending money."

"I... I can convince Tony of that..." Jessica said, a stray gleam of hope in her eyes.

"Excellent. I'll leave you to it, then, please... contact us as soon as you make your decision," Elizabeth paused, "Uh, you DO know how to contact us, don't you?"

"Yes, yes of course."

"Excellent," She said again. "Well I have another stop to make, then I can get clear of this town."

The Recruiter made her exit quickly, not noting the confusion on Jessica's face as she spoke her parting words. Confusion quickly passed though as she turned to Alexander, who was looking at her with curiosity burning in his eyes.

"What was that about, mom?"

"That..." Jessica swallowed, trying to moisten her mouth, "That was someone who wants to offer you a place in a special school."

"What kind?"

"Remember the stories I told you about magic?"

"The bedtime stories?" Alexander grinned, "Course!"

"That kind of school."

"C'mon mom," The boy laughed, "Those were made up!"

Jessica shook her head. "No, they were real."

Alexander frowned, "But... they can't be real. They're about *magic*!"

"I swear to you, I didn't make them up."

Alexander thought about it for a long moment, then brightened suddenly. "Cool! Wait till I tell Willow and Jessie!"

Jessica smiled, "I think you might have a hard time convincing them until you get your wand and learn some spells, and you won't be allowed to do magic outside of school for a few years anyway."

"Aw... that sucks." The boy pouted, then frowned, "Wait... if I go to this school..."

His face scrunched up as he thought it through, then suddenly dropped as it clicked. "What about Jessie and Willow!?"

"Alex... they can't go..."

"Then I don't wanna go either!"

"Alex..."

"No! I wanna stay with Jessie and Willow..."

"Alexander Levalle Harris!" Jessica snapped, quieting him, "This is a very big deal, and it's important for you. Jessie and Willow will be here in the summers, but this chance won't come around again. You ARE going to go."

"I don't wanna!" Alexander yelled back, "I don't wanna and you can't make me!"

"Alex...!" Jessica said, reaching out as Xander broke free and ran out the back door.

She sighed, shaking her head. Nothing was ever easy, it seemed.

* * *

New Jersey.

"Ah! Lurch, dear boy, who was it at the door?"

"Guest." The huge man groaned out as Simon came up behind him. "Recruiter..."

"Oh? For what?" The man in the purple suit asked with a grin as he pulled the cigar from his mouth, "Have the Dodgers come to their senses and realized what they missed out on in Fester?"

Simon paused, then shook his head, "Uh no... I'm here about... umm... Wednesday?"

"I didn't know she played baseball?" The man frowned, confused.

"I don't think he's with the Dodgers, dear." a woman in a form fitting black dress glided to the man's side. "Why don't we let the man speak, shall we chéri?"

"Tish! That's French!"

Simon just stared as the man grabbed the woman's arm and began kissing it obsessively.

"Later, dear Gomez..."

"Huh? Oh, right!" Gomez Addams said, eyes snapping to Simon again, "Now, what was this about?"

"I'm with the Salem Institute," Simon began, "Your daughter's name turned up on our roles recently and..."

"But of course she did," Mortisha said simply, "We submitted her name years ago."

"Uh... yes, well you see there's a problem."

"Problem? With Wednesday?" Gomez frowned, "Don't be absurd."

"No, with the Institute, actually. You see there was an explosion and..."

"Say no more, how much to you need!?" Gomez asked, producing a checkbook from thin air. "Five million?"

"Uh..."

"Ten!"

"No, you see..."

"You drive a hard bargain, Sir... Twenty it is!" Gomez said, scrawling out numbers on the check.

"Sir, no, that's not the issue...!"

"Then what is it? Speak up, man!" Gomez said, exasperated.

"The repairs will take time, money isn't an issue, however we don't have room to accommodate a freshman class this year." Simon sighed, "We've discussed options with the board, and are willing to help with home schooling..."

"We can manage, I'm sure," Mortisha said, frowning, "But poor Wednesday was so looking forward to meeting other children."

"Well, there is another possibility," Simon said tentatively. "The Institute has contacted several schools overseas and is prepared to offer placement with them, for the first year at least. Possibly more."

"Send our little girl overseas!? Nonsense, wouldn't think of it!" Gomez countered.

"Dear, she did so want to play with other children."

Gomez frowned, "Well yes, I know, but..."

"It's not the hardship you might think, Mr. Addams," Simon offered, "She would return each holiday, and all summer of course... Even at the Institute most children don't come home more than that."

"He's right, dear."

Gomez frowned thoughtfully, "Well we'll talk to Wednesday about it and let you know."

"That would be perfect, Sir."

* * *

Sunnydale.

Alexander 'Xander' Harris bolted from his home and ran through the backyards and driveways to the one place he knew someone would listen to him. He didn't want to live his friends, couldn't his mother get that? What was so special about some dumb magic school anyway? It was probably all some stupid joke, people always played stupid jokes on him and his friends.

They didn't do it *twice*, but there was always some new moron who thought they were soft and weak and unable to look out for themselves. Xander had learned the hard way how to deal with Bullies, at least the way that worked for him. He wasn't big enough to fight them, so he took the beatings when he had to, but he didn't forget.

Don't get mad, his dad had told him once while he was sober. Get even.

Still, this didn't sound like a joke. His mom sounded serious.

Xander ran up to the Rosenberg house a minute later, frowning as he heard yelling from inside.

'No one yells at Willow...'

He approached cautiously, the yelling getting louder and louder, then suddenly the door flew open and he was surprised to see the lady from earlier get pushed out hard by Mr. Rosenberg.

"And stay out of my home you... you... charlatan! I won't have your apostasy in my home! Come here to corrupt my daughter! Get out! Get out of here I say!"

The woman huffed, gathering herself up, and turned on her heel. Xander watched as she strode away, blinking in surprise. Mr. Rosenberg never got that angry at anyone.

He was almost afraid to approach so he watched from the corner of the house as the woman looked around briefly, then drew out a stick and muttered something before vanishing in a crack that sounded like a gunshot from the movies. Xander's eyes widened in shock as he took it in.

'Magic IS real!'

He swallowed, sneaking around back, and climbed the tree to Willow's room. Her dad was really angry, so he knew she'd be up there. He tapped on the window and she opened it almost instantly.

"Hey." She said, subdued.

"Hey. You ok?"

"Yeah," She said, "Dad's really mad."

"Yeah, I saw him toss the magic lady out." Xander said, shrugging. "I guess you're not going to that school, huh?"

Willow's eyes widened, "How did you know about that?"

"She came to my place first," Xander said glumly, "Mom is excited, she says I have to go."

"What? You can't! Magic doesn't exist!"

"I just watched that lady vanish right off the street, Wills... and my Mom says it does." Xander told her.

"That's impossible," Willow told him with supreme confidence.

Xander just shrugged, "Between reality and my own eyes, I'm gonna go with my eyes, Wills."

"But... but... you *can't* believe in magic!" Willow blurted, "It's... it's... stupid!"

"Hey," Xander forced a grin, "This is me we're talking about."

* * *

New Jersey.

"Scotland?" The young witch asked laconically. "I'm to go to Scotland?"

"Only if you really want to," Gomez said hurriedly, assuring her. "You're an Addams, we can arrange a tutor and..."

"Scotland will do. It's a good school, correct?" Wednesday asked, one eyebrow raising as she looked at her mother.

"One of the best," Mortisha said after some thought, "Though it IS in Europe, and they have... different ways than here in America."

"Oh?"

"More steeped in the old traditions, less willing to see that not everything different is bad." The woman sighed. "I'm afraid that they would look very crossly on Lurch and Thing there."

To someone who didn't know her, Wednesday's expression didn't change, but her family noted the frown the instant it crossed her face and even the normally ebullient Gomez sighed and settled deeper into his chair.

"The Old World Addams' don't involve themselves much with the Wizards and their type," Gomez said tiredly. "We're not welcome with them, and to be honest we're fine with that."

"I see."

"You don't have to go, dear," Mortisha said, "this decision is entirely yours."

"I want to go." the young girl said calmly. "It feels... right."

The two elder Addams' exchanged concerned looks, but there was nothing left to say after that. Their daughter had made up her mind, and that... well, was that.

* * *

Sunnydale, 2 Weeks to end of Summer Vacation.

Xander shifted nervously, eyeing the man who'd been sent to pick him up with some trepidation.

"No need to be worried, Alex," His mother smiled at him. "You'll do fine."

"He'd better." Tony grumbled, thinking about the couple thousand dollars he'd put up for spending money for the boy.

"Now dear, don't be like that." Jessica said mildly, but shooting her husband an arched glare.

Tony sighed, his head nodded, and he turned to his Son. "Now listen to me, boy. I know a few things about what I'm going to tell you here."

Xander nodded, eyes wide as his father leaned over.

"Lots of kids in that school are probably gonna give you crap about being..." Tony frowned, looking over at the school representative from Salem. "What do they call it over there?"

"I believe you're looking for the term 'Muggle-born'," The man said smoothly.

"Yeah, right. That." Tony turned back to his son, "I know you've been reading those books we got you from Salem, right?"

Xander nodded, "Yes sir."

Tony half smirked, shaking his head at the comment as he leaned in to whisper, "And less I miss my guess you got your redheaded friend to help you learn 'em, right?"

Xander nodded again.

"Ok, now listen close boy." Tony said sternly, "You don't start no trouble with anyone, but don't you roll over for any of em either. You remember what I told you about bullies, right?"

Xander nodded, "I remember."

"You're no fighter, boy, but you don't need to be to take on a Bully. So you remember what I said and you'll do fine." Tony said gruffly. "Long as you don't act stupid in class and get kicked out."

"Tony!"

"What?"

Jessica shook her head, shoving her husband out of the way, "You'll be fine, Alex. Now listen you Mr. Graden, try not to get in any trouble, and do your best. Ok?"

"Ok mom." Xander said, sighing as he thought about the goodbyes he'd already exchanged with his best friends. Things were moving so fast, and he felt pretty lost.

"Ok, now go along."

The representative of the Salem Institute smiled at him as Xander nodded and turned in his direction.

"Come along, Alexander. Next stop, Salem."

* * *

New Jersey.

"Ready to go, dear?"

"Yes Mother."

"Fabulous," Gomez said, clapping his hands. "We'll run you up there ourselves. It's been ages since we've seen Salem."

"Hmmm... The witch burning museum was quite amusing," Mortisha conceded, "But I was terribly disappointed with all the false advertising."

"Yes well, it's not easy to get ghosts to haunt restaurants, I suppose," Gomez shrugged.

"Perhaps, but you'd think that the Hotel would know better."

"Come now, darling, forgive and forget... we'll try another place this time, alright?"

"Yes, of course, dear... Merci."

"Tish! That's French!"

* * *

Salem.

The tugging sensation in his gut let go and Xander stumbled, almost falling before Grading caught him, and he blinked to find himself somewhere other than his home.

"Whoa."

"Careful there," Thomas Grading said with a calm smile. "Port keys can take some getting used to. You alright?"

Xander nodded, swallowing as he looked at what appeared to be a thirty foot tall volcano in the middle of school grounds. "Uh..."

"Oh, that." Grading sighed, "Yes, well, suffice to say that freshmen should always be monitored while playing in the alchemical labs."

"Students did THAT?" Xander stared, wide eyed, between the volcano and the man.

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Wow. I've never done anything THAT destructive before."

"I should hope not," Grading chuckled, "Very few students get a chance to blow up their school."

"A fonder dream I have never had." Xander replied with a grin.

Tom laughed, "Maybe it's better we're shipping you out to Hogwarts."

"What kind of name is that anyway?" Xander asked, humor still lacing his voice.

"Oh, I think you'll find that the Old World wizards are full of strange names and terms." Grading said, sighing now. "They're really quite backward, at least by our standards of culture. Don't underestimate them for it, however, their magical science is just as advanced as anything we've developed, and they're even more comfortable with it."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes... this way please," Grading said, guiding Xander away from the volcano, "They isolate themselves from the normal world, what they call 'muggles', and are entirely immersed in magic. We tend to mix a great deal more here, and generally have far fewer laws on the subject... well, far fewer laws in general really..."

"Why's that?"

"Well, American witches and wizards mostly came over here to get away from the Old World way of doing things... and not very many came over, really, all things considered..." Tom said, steering his charge to the dormitories. "There was so much room here that a few hundred wizarding families could really spread out and only interact when they chose to. We didn't really HAVE a government until almost the Second World War, and only created what we have now in self-defense."

"Huh?"

"Let's just say that the war was a little more complicated than you probably learned and leave it at that," Tom sighed, "The European theatre was a terrible mess, entire wizarding communities were caught in the crossfire... and to make matters worse, the whole Grindlewald affair actually set off a fair portion of the war..."

"The uh... what?"

"Oh dear," Tom sighed, "You have a great deal to learn about the history of the magical world, but I'm afraid we don't have much time for it now. I'll make certain you get some reference books on it."

"Okay." Xander said, unenthused by the prospect.

It wasn't that he didn't want to know, but reading was a pain. Still, the magic books were sometimes kinda cool, with moving pictures and the like. He brightened up, there might be moving pictures of the war, and he'd always been interested in World War Two. If there was other stuff going on he'd never heard about, well he wanted to know about it.

"Here we are," Tom said, "You'll be staying here until we gather the other students, then we'll send you all on together."

Xander looked at the dormitory and his eyes widened. From the outside it had looked fairly common, but inside it was huge and filled with posters and bookshelves and all kinds of things.

"Feel free to peruse the books, you can pick any of the rooms as you're the first here. Just drop your things off and the room will automatically recognize it as yours." Tom told him, "I'll have a history of Hogwarts sent to you... please, look it over... you don't want to be completely unprepared... particularly concerning their House System."

"Huh?"

"Hogwarts divides its students up into groups according to their... defining motivations," Tom said, considering his words. "Courage, Loyalty, Intelligence, and... well, Ruthlessness I suppose."

Xander recognized the word quickly enough and frowned, "Funny thing to have kids try to be."

"Yes well, the Old World is set in its ways, and Hogwarts has been around for a long time. It's very much the magical world's version of Oxford, complete with some rather odd traditions, but a very high standard of academic excellence." Tom replied. "We don't use the house system here, of course."

Xander nodded, thinking about it. Where would he wind up, he wondered? He liked to think he was brave, and he was pretty sure he was loyal... ok, he probably wasn't going to win any points for brains. Ruthless, well... he had to be honest, he could be that if he had to be. Didn't like it though, so he didn't know what the school would make of that.

"I'll leave you be then," Tom told him, heading out.

Xander nodded, said bye, then went to find a room.

* * *

Ok, the books WERE really cool, Xander had to admit.

The 'A History of Hogwarts' was *huge*, and filled with some of the dullest stuff he'd ever imagined, but at the same time it had pages and pages of all kinds of cool stuff. Wizards sure were funny looking in Europe, Xander decided after only a few chapters.

And what was with the names?

Man, if he'd been named like any of those guys he'd have spent his entire scholastic life with his head in a toilet. When he thought of how easy it was to give someone a stupid nickname in Sunnydale, then looked at names like 'Dumbledore' and Slytherin... well, he was just real glad he was named Alexander. Xander wasn't so bad as far as nicknames went.

'Probably shouldn't mention that though,' He thought, 'they might not know how stupid their names are.'

The house system was kinda cool, once he went through it. Gryffindor got the brave kids, Hufflepuff got the loyal ones, Ravenclaw got all the nerds, and Slytherin... well, there he wasn't sure. There was something wrong about the stuff printed about Slytherin, something that didn't read exactly true.

Xander wasn't a big reader, but he could read between the lines pretty easy. Lots of people didn't like Slytherin's, that was for sure. Still, from what he could tell there was nothing wrong with them on paper. The key traits weren't ruthlessness, as Tom had said, but the willingness to see a goal through to the end, even if you had to get a little dirty to do it.

Ok, maybe that was ruthless, but there was nothing wrong it that in Xander's opinion. Just kinda dangerous, since it didn't leave any guidelines for what your goal was supposed to be. Lots of room for pricks to make everyone look bad there.

He put it aside, having found out what he wanted to know, and sighed as he settled into his temporary room.

He was long way from home, he realized, and it felt pretty scary.

Maybe if he didn't like it, he could go back to Sunnydale... and Willow and Jessie.

He kinda wished Willow's dad had let her come, but then Jessie would be alone and that would suck too. He took a breath, forcing himself not to feel too bad.

Better he feel bad than Jessie or Willow, Xander was used to it. He could take it. As long as he knew his friends had each other, he could keep on moving forward.

* * *

It was two days later, and Xander was getting bored with reading about magic and not being able to try anything. Honestly, his interest had waned by the first night, but he'd kept reading cause he knew Willow would probably kill to be in his position.

The sound of a car outside attracted his attention, however, and he eagerly headed to the door to see who it was. The car was a classic, no doubt. Xander knew a bit about cars from his Uncle Rory, though Rory preferred slightly newer vehicles. This one was a thirties Rolls Royce, Xander thought, maybe even older, and probably was worth more than just about... well, anything he could think of.

It came to a stop and Xander gulped as the driver got out, towering over the vehicle as he stared, looking for all the world like Frankenstein's Monster.

"Whoa." He muttered.

The large guy walked around, opening the door for those in back, and one by one they climbed out. The woman was pretty, he figured, dressed in something that Xander just knew his mom would find outrageous, and looked like a vampire or something out of the story books. Xander thought about the fact that vampires were real and did a quickly glance upward.

'Ok, sun really IS shining... probably not a vampire.' Xander thought, frowning slightly. 'Too bad.'

A man in a suit was next, practically bouncing on his feet as he looked around and took a deep breath.

"Tish! Smell that!"

"Yes dear," The vampire lady smiled, "Sulfur and brimstone. The students here do good work."

'Ok, they're a little weird.' Xander thought, listening to the conversation as the final occupant exited the vehicle.

This one was a girl about his age or so, dressed similarly to her mother, and looking distinctly unimpressed with... well anything.

"So this is Salem," She said quietly, making Xander strain to hear her. "It looks... *nice*"

The man sighed, "Yes indeed, it's sad how far things have fallen. Why I remember grandpapa's stories about running around town, making random accusations of witchcraft, just for fun."

"Do you suppose I could find someone to burn at the stake?" the girl asked.

Xander paled slightly. 'She's kidding right?'

"Now dear, they're still a little touchy about that here," The woman said calmly. "Best you wait until you've got a few years in before you try anything as advanced as a stake burning anyway."

The girl *almost* seemed to pout, "But we did it last year at home."

"Yes, smashing time that." The man grinned, then frowned, "Too bad she got away."

"Yes, some people are rather more wiry than you expect, aren't they?" The woman said fatalistically.

'They're completely nuts.' Xander thought, stunned as the group walked towards him. ' They have to be, right'

"Look, Wednesday Darling, a playmate for you!" The woman said, drawing the girl's attention to Xander.

"He looks... bright." The girl said flatly.

Xander frowned, looking down at the Hawaiian shirt he wore, "I like bright colors, ok?"

"Excellent, my boy," The man grinned, "Nothing wrong with a good splash of color now and then, makes your enemies blink before you slide the knife in."

"Darling, manners." The woman said chidingly.

"Oh right, what WAS I thinking of," The man shook his head, promptly offering his hand to Xander. "Gomez Addams at your service. This vison of beauty next to me is my wife Mortisha..."

"Cara-mia..." The woman smiled.

"Tish... that sounded like French!" Gomez blurted before snapping his hand away from Xander, who was reaching to accept the shake, and grabbing his wife's arm and kissing it enthusiastically.

Xander's mouth gaped open as he tried to determine if he was being set up for a joke or something, but the woman just sighed with a smile and pushed her husband away.

"Later darling."

"Oh. Right, yes of course," Gomez straightened himself out and looked back to Xander, grabbing his still outstretched hand, and pumping it almost violently. "This is our daughter Wednesday, and our butler Lurch."

The big Frankenstein guy moaned, sending a shiver down Xander's back.

"Uh... Xander." He said, staring up at the big guy.

"What?" Gomez blinked, looking between Xander and Mortisha, "Was that his name, or is he speaking some other language?"

Xander shook his head, "Xander Harris, that's my name. Sorry."

"Fantastic!" Gomez cried out, "Good to know, old chum! It gets confusing when people don't know each other's names or languages."

"Uh... yeah."

"Are you here for school?" Wednesday asked suddenly, peering at him intently.

"Uh... yeah. I guess. I mean, they're not taking students here they tell me, but I'm being sent over to Hogwarts or something like that."

"Oh good show! So is little Wednesday here," Gomez grinned, "I'm sure you'll get along fabulously."

"Uh..."

"Tell me," Wednesday looked at him, "Do you know how to play ritual sacrifice?"

Xander swallowed, "Do you know how creeped out you're making me?"

"I say, man, there's no need to be rude." Gomez frowned.

"Rude? She's talking about ritual sacrifice!" Xander blurted, "I'm no expert, but most of the books I've read say that's a bad thing."

"They what!?" Gomez growled, "What kind of school IS this place? Why I have a mind to..."

"Dear..." Mortisha laid a calming hand on his shoulder, "be calm. You know that many people can't wrap their minds around how we Addams' are."

"That's no excuse!"

While Gomez raged, apparently just as passionate in anger as he was in greeting, and Mortisha worked to calm him, Wednesday moved closer to Xander.

"Do I really creep you out?"

Xander looked at her, then just nodded.

She tilted her head slightly to one side, "Is that really a bad thing?"

"I'll let you know when I figure out if you're going to try and cut my heart out with a dagger." Xander grinned in response.

She sniffed, "Certainly not. I'm saving that for my wedding night."

Xander stared, his ten year old mind trying to wrap itself around that... and failing miserably. Finally he just shook his head and lifted his hand to chest level.

"Just so you know," He said, "Creep factor just went from here..."

He moved his hand up over his head, "To here."

The girl looked at him oddly, but didn't have time to reply before Xander shoved his hands in his pocket and went on.

"But I'll be damned if I can decide if it's cause of the dagger and heart thing, or the wedding night thing."

* * *

Orientation week, as the instructors liked to call it, came and went quickly. There had been around thirty or so American, Canadian, and some Mexican students who'd shown up, each being briefed on the schools they were being sent to.

From what Xander could figure, they'd gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that each student went to a school where they at least spoke the same language. Which was good, in his opinion, to say the least. Some of the Canadians were sent to Beauxbatons in France, and a random handful from the group spoke German well enough to attend Durmstrang. The Spanish speaking were being sent to the Order of the Sun in South America.

A few others were being shipped to smaller schools, and then those like Xander himself were being sent to Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry.

Hogwarts, name notwithstanding, apparently had a fair reputation in the community from what Xander could tell. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that, cause him and school? Well, not a great mix in the past, and he saw no reason why that would change here. Still, it was all very exciting, and he found himself getting more and more eager to see the place in person.

Wednesday Addams, on the other hand, seemed terminally bored. Which didn't surprise Xander as much as it should have since she'd literally scared off every other student who showed up, and a couple of the teachers.

He'd tried to make her laugh with his patented Willow Perk-Uppers, which went down like a lead balloon. He hadn't fallen on his face that hard since he tried being friendly with Cordelia in kindergarten, yet there was still something about the girl that kept him trying.

'I'm just a glutton for punishment I guess.' He thought glumly.

Today was the big day, though. They were going to portkey across the Atlantic Ocean to Great Britain, and spend some time in a place called Diagon Alley before catching a train to Hogwarts. It was kinda scary, really, and Xander found himself chewing nervously on his lip.

"It'll be fine."

He looked to one side, the monotone voice almost but not quite startling him.

"Huh?"

Wednesday Addams looked at him for a moment, "You don't have to be scared. I've read all about portkeys, they're perfectly safe."

"Actually I was thinking about being in Britain," Xander admitted, "never thought of anything going wrong with the portkey... until now, thanks so very much."

He smirked at her, waggling his eyebrows.

Another pratfall.

He sighed slightly as her expression remained entirely unamused, the dark look she shot him probably intended to inflict bodily harm. "Sheesh, Wednesday, you need to rent a sense of humor."

"So do you."

Xander sighed again, then stopped and did a double take, glaring at her suspiciously. "Was that a joke?"

She gave him an even look, then turned away.

"It was! Short, dark, and scary made a joke!" Xander grinned, "I'm gonna get you giggling yet, girl!"

"I doubt it."

"Children! Gather round your designated areas!"

Xander filed the odd gleam in Wednesday's eyes as a potential chink in her demeanor, and vowed to make a project of exploiting and expanding that look. The two of them made their way over to the Hogwarts group and the professor who had been assigned to them.

"Alright everyone," He said, checking the old wind up timepiece on his wrist, "forty seconds, children. Everyone touch the key."

Xander looked at the beach ball everyone was grasping at and raised his eyebrow slightly, but did as he was told. The countdown started from ten, and everyone was touching it well before the key activated, and Xander again felt the tug in his guts as the world went lopsided on him.

As the world came back the children went down in a heap as one tripped and fell into another, toppling the group like dominos until only Wednesday and the Professor were left standing. The dark girl looked down at them, one eyebrow raised as Xander looked up at her.

"Is it comfortable down there?" She asked dryly.

Xander shook his head and extended his hand, "Cut out the sarcasm and help me up would ya, man I'm dizzy."

She sighed and took his head, bracing herself to help him up, but Xander just grinned and suddenly put his full weight into pulling her forward and off her feet. She toppled to the ground in a heap beside him, and looked over as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off.

"Comfy huh?" He asked, smirking at her.

Wednesday Addams stared evenly up at the boy who'd suckered her, then calmly extended her own hand. He smirked, but perhaps surprisingly took it and lifted her to her feet.

"Of course you realize," She said, standing even with him, "This means war."

Xander felt a shiver run down his spine, but kept the grin on his face. "Whatever you say, Daffy."

Wednesday took a deep breath, her nostrils flaring slightly as she let it out through her nose, then she turned her back on Xander and rejoined the group who were now staring at the two of them with an odd mixture of fear, awe, and childish skittishness. Given that the same mix was present on the Professors face, Wednesday felt that about the only person in the entire group worth knowing was at her back.

The professor shook himself, and nodded down the street. "Alright, wands first, then familiars and school books."

* * *

Ollivander's Fine Wands was, well Xander had to say it... to himself at least, it was a hole in the wall shop. It looked like an old second hand bookstore he had been dragged to by Willow back in Sunnydale, and smelled surprisingly the same.

The old man, Ollivander, Xander presumed, was waiting for them when they came in the door and nodded to the professor.

"The little ones from America," He said more than asked. "Well, well... let's get on with it then."

He singled out the closest kid, a boy named Thomas Hardy, and within mere moments Xander found himself ducking for cover as sparks, flames, and what looked like lightning was erupting through the shop and blowing out shelves all over the place.

"Holy!" He muttered, hiding behind a corner.

Only the Professor and Wednesday Addams had remained unmoved as the experimentation went on, and for a while Xander stared at them in shock, but it slowly came to him that it wasn't as dangerous as he'd thought and he crept out to join them.

Ollivander quickly located the wand for Thomas, and moved on to another, plucking a girl named Joy from where she was hiding behind his counter. Her trials in finding a wand took a little longer, but were thankfully less spectacular. One by one the children found their wands, then Ollivander turned to Xander and frowned.

"Hmmm..." He said, checking a list. "Harris you say?"

"Uh... I didn't actually, but yeah." Xander muttered.

The old man ignored him, "try this. Holly, twelve inches, dragon heartstring core."

Xander took the wand, eyeing it for a moment, then flicked it.

He jumped as a force blew out the shelves for three rows, sending hundreds of wands flying down the aisles.

"Sorry!" he yelped.

"No matter, no matter. Here, Thirteen Inches, Vine Wood, with a Unicorn Hair core." Ollivander said absently, handing another to Xander.

Xander accepted it, swallowed, and then flicked it as he'd been told. This time there was a fizzle and pretty much nothing came out.

"Hmmm... not quite. Very well, try this..."

Xander accepted the stick from the man and flicked it, sending a shower of sparks across the room that threatened to light the place on fire. Ollivander extinguished the flames with a casual flick of his own wand and frowned deeply.

"Most troublesome."

"Uh... I can probably get by and," Xander started.

"Nonsense. No one has ever left my shop without a wand properly suited to them," Ollivander said sternly, handing him another one.

Several more times Xander practically destroyed the shop, until he was becoming as jaded about it as Ollivander seemed to be. Finally the shopkeeper pulled out a wand that had been polished to a deep reddish tint and handed it to him.

"Willow, fourteen inches, dragon heart string core." He said calmly.

Xander flicked the wand and was surprised to see a shimmering of lights come out that seemed to match what the other successful matches had been. He smiled, turning to Ollivander, but was surprised when the shopkeeper frowned.

"Not quite right." Ollivander said, looking perplexed.

"It feels good to me."

"No, there's something wrong."

"Uh... ok."

So they went through it again, and again, until everyone was quite tired of the whole thing, and still they found nothing. Ollivander sighed, shaking his head as he looked through the stores that were scattered all over the place. He finally went back to the Willow wand and drew it back out again.

"A second time," He said, handing it to Xander.

Xander frowned, but nodded and flicked the wand to the same results as before.

Ollivander looked downright put out by the results, but finally nodded, "That is the best match of any wand I have in the shop."

"We'll take it," The Professor said tiredly. "Wednesday, your turn."

"Very Well."

"Wednesday... Addams?" Ollivander looked up, his eyes widening as he visibly swallowed.

"That's correct."

For a moment Xander actually thought the old man was going to bolt or try to refuse service to the girl, but he finally shook himself loose of the effect her name had and nodded.

One wand after another left the disaster area that had been a reasonably neat shop in no less of a mess as it would have been impossible to make things worse after Xander's excursion through the wands, yet none of the sticks seemed to do well for the Addams scion.

Finally Ollivander frowned deeply and took a deep breath, drawing out a wand from the bottom tier under his counter. He handed it to Wednesday, it's black surface reflecting very little light as she accepted it.

"Ebony, eleven inches, Dragon heartstring core." Ollivander said with trepidation. "Very rare, not many wands use ebony..."

"I'll take it."

"I believe you should try it at least once, young lady," He said sternly.

"I don't need to." She told him, looking up at him. "This is my wand."

* * *

Xander had spent a great deal of his school life practicing the fine art of driving teachers to distraction, and knew the look intimately. Their chaperon of the moment had that look, in spades. He hustled them out of Ollivander's, and across to the pet shop as fast as he could, clearly trying not to look at Wednesday as the girl caressed the smooth surface of her wand with an intent look on her face.

Ollivander had the look of man due a major heart attack at any time as well, but Xander just chalked it up to a successful morning so far and eyed the pet shop with some anticipation.

He'd never been allowed a pet, though he'd always wanted one, and now he was not only getting one but he was going to be permitted to take it to CLASS with him. Magic school really had some perks.

Inside they found the place filled with animals of all types, and a few Xander had only imagined previously.

"Please, children. Owls, cats, or rats are preferred."

The children made their way through the shop, picking out the animals of their choice, but Xander found himself gravitating toward another section where a young pup was looking up at him as if expecting him to say something.

"Please Miss Addams, Owls, cats, or rats." The professor said in the background.

"I think not." Wednesday said tonelessly as she went to the counter with a raven on her shoulder. "I'll take him, please."

"Such a polite young lady," The woman behind the counter smiled, ringing it up. "And who might you be?"

"Wednesday Addams."

The woman went pale, hand shaking as she took the coins offered, and watched the young girl leave. Xander turned his attention back to the pup who was jumping up at him from inside the caged box.

He made a decision in a snap, and scooped the pup up. If Wednesday could get away with a raven, he was going to get a dog.

"Mr. Harris!"

"He's the one I want." Xander said, not giving the teacher a chance to continue. He presented himself at the counter, noticing the woman was still staring after Wednesday. "Ma'am? Ma'am, I'd like this one please."

"Huh? Oh yes, certainly." She said, numbly taking the money from him.

Xander went immediately outside to wait the rest while the frazzled professor tried to keep the rest in line. He found Wednesday waiting patiently by the curb, the large raven cawing softly on her shoulder.

"Nice." He said, nodding to the bird, "You know, everyone seems to know you."

"They know the Addams'." Wednesday corrected.

"Famous family?"

She *almost* seemed to smile for a moment, then shook her head slightly, "Infamous."

Xander frowned, thinking hard. "Isn't that the same thing?"

"Not exactly."

"Oh. Ok." Xander shrugged, holding up the puppy he'd gotten. "I gotta name him, what do you think?"

Wednesday looked over at the puppy and raised an eyebrow. "Fenrir."

"Huh?"

"Fenrir." She said with an odd twinkle. "He should get along well with Odin."

"Who's Odin?"

"This," Wednesday said, gesturing to the raven, "Is Odin."

"Ah." Xander nodded, frowning, "You're naming your bird after the Norse God?"

"You know mythology?"

"I know comic books." Xander grinned.

Wednesday sighed, rolled her eyes, and then settled in silently to wait. Xander shrugged, knowing that he'd scored another hit even if she wouldn't admit it, and settled in beside her as he held up the pup. "Fenrir, huh? That's cool. You like?"

The pup yipped once and licked his nose.

* * *

The American hoodlums had been cleared out of her shop finally, leaving the shopkeeper to sit in semi-stunned silence as her assistant came back in.

"Gee Corsa, you don't look so good."

"There's an Addams attending Hogwarts," She said as the young man went about cleaning the place up.

"A who?"

"Never mind," She sighed, "You wouldn't understand anyway. Kids these days."

"Hey! Who bought the Dire Wolf cub?"

"What?" The shopkeeper frowned, looking over.

"The dire wolf cub, he's gone, who bought him?"

A look of horror slowly passed over the shopkeeper's face as she thought desperately back. "Oh my, I don't know."

* * *

Books were next, but there were no explosions, extreme confusion, or name dropping there so things went by fairly quickly as they were all outfitted properly for school, and then were quickly shooed along by the professor escorting them.

School robes were the last stop for the day, and they each got two, though Xander scowled through the fitting constantly, hating the idea of wearing a dress to school. Only the assurance that everyone wore them made him give in finally, though he was still pretty unhappy about it.

When they were done there they were herded back to their rooms to get everything in order for the next day when they would catch the train to Hogwarts to officially begin their scholastic experience.

* * *

Platform 9 and 3/4. Xander shook his head at the silliness of it, though he had to admit that the hidden entrance was cool. Still, anyone who reads comic books like he did could figure out that it's just downright stupid to have something supposedly 'secret' this much out in the open. He watched as two people walked through the illusion, vanishing from sight, and let his eyes rove around.

'Yeah. Thought so.' He watched as two people, non-magical types he presumed, stared in shock, then quickly moved away. There was no way to hide something that blatant in a place this wide open, Xander would be surprised if it hadn't been reported to the press so many times by now that they were getting bored of it all.

Oh, sure, they'd never believe it, but still... why take stupid chances any...

Xander's eyes narrowed as he watched a man step up to the two witnesses and wave a wand at them. 'Did he just...?'

"Children... get ready now."

Xander shook his head, focusing back on the group then.

"Wait for people to look at the incoming train, then run through," The Salem Professor said, nodding to the wall.

Xander took a breath, then frowned as he saw a young boy wander right between them and the wall.

"Hold... wait for him to move on."

The boy wasn't moving though, he was looking around in confusion at the signs and finally he approached a uniformed guard. Xander sidled closer, trying to listen in.

"Pardon me, Sir, but can you direct me to platform 9 and three quarters?"

The guard looked at the boy like he was nuts, and Xander groaned. He glanced to one side, then the other, and was surprised to find Wednesday right there.

"We should prevent him from attracting any more attention," The dark girl said tonelessly, "Otherwise the guard will be obliviated, and there's no reason for it."

"Right." Xander said, moving forward as he put on a cheery smile. "Hey bro, what are you doing? Making a pest of yourself?"

The boy looked confused, but the guard just shook his head, "Here now, push off, the two of you."

"I... but..."

"Come on, bro, back to the group." Xander said, pulling the other boy along.

"Shut up." Wednesday hissed as they came along side, "The guard has no idea what you're talking about."

The boy looked almost pathetically happy to have been found by someone who did. "You... uh... are?"

"A group going to platform 9 and three quarters." Wednesday replied tonelessly.

"Good work you two," The Salem Professor smiled, "Sorry son, didn't know you were going to Hogwarts."

"That's alright Sir."

Xander found that their little group had grown by almost a full factor of two, with the addition of two red headed adults, four boys, and one girl.

"These are the Weasley's," The Professor said, "Now, shall we move through before our little group crowds out the station."

"Yes Sir."

"Alexander, Wednesday, why don't you go first with young..."

"Harry Sir." The boy answered. "Harry Potter."

"B... b... bloody hell."

Everyone turned to look at the youngest of the red headed boys, and Xander blinked to realize that they were all staring in shock. He looked over at the other boy, but didn't see anything physical that might have triggered the response. Well, not other than a scar on his forehead, so he assumed it was the name.

"Gee, I seem to be surrounded by celebrities lately," He quipped dryly, earning him an intense stare from Wednesday. Of course, since everything she did was intense, he wasn't worried about it.

"Continue it on the other side, go on! Now, no one's looking."

"You too Ron, go ahead and show them the way." The older woman said.

The youngest boy nodded and pushed a cart on ahead, heading right for the wall with Harry jogging after him. Xander matched his pace to Wednesday, who was walking with a dignified stride that nevertheless covered the ground almost as fast. The two ahead of them vanished into the stone wall, and they followed. Xander flinched hard just before walking into it, but quickly opened his eyes as bright light erupted around him and he found himself on a crowded platform with all sorts of weirdness rushing around.

"Clear the way!"

The call came from behind, causing he and Wednesday to split smoothly as the two middle redheads came roaring through, riding their carts like race cars. Behind them the rest of the group streamed after. Xander and Wednesday waited beside Harry and Ron as the others assembled.

"Are you really... Harry Potter?" Ron asked, his tone filled with awe.

"Uh, yeah I guess so." Harry seemed slightly perturbed by question.

"Brilliant!" Ron enthused, "That's fantastic! And you're going to Hogwarts, first year right?"

Harry nodded.

"Absolutely brilliant." The redhead grinned widely.

"Nice to meet you, Harry." Xander said, nodding. "I'm Xander, this is Wednesday."

"Hi," Harry said, nodding to each.

The Addams scion merely inclined her head in return.

"Those are funny names," Ron blinked.

Xander and Wednesday looked at each other, then at him, and actually spoke as one.

"Says who?"

They looked at each other sharply again, then back to Ron and Harry who were staring at them.

"Cor, do you two do that a lot? Fred and George do it all the time, but they're twins."

"Don't know, we just met." Xander grinned, looking at Harry, "So, you're famous I take it."

"Yeah, it seems so." Harry said, rubbing the back of his head self-consciously.

"Of course he is! He's Harry Pot-!" Ron blurted, only to be cut off when Harry slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Not so loud, please!" Potter begged, "I don't want to be stared at."

Ron's eyes bulged, but he nodded in agreement.

"Well, someone's learned quick how to quiet my Ron down," The older woman, presumably Ron's mother, said as she approached.

"Sorry, ma'am, but I..."

"Please, thing nothing of it." The woman said with a smile, "We all want to do that to Ron from time to time. I'm Molly Weasely."

"Hey!" Ron growled, trying to summon what dignity he could.

"Pleased to meet you ma'am." Harry said.

Molly turned to look at Wednesday and Xander, "Such quick thinking children, helping Harry out like that. And you are?"

"Xander Harris, Ma'am."

"Wednesday Addams."

Molly was nodding politely to Xander when Wednesday introduced herself, then paused, almost choking as she stared. "A... Addams you say?"

Wednesday raised a single eyebrow, but didn't repeat herself.

"Oh my. Oh my." Molly stammered, pulling back.

"Are you ok, mum?" Ron frowned.

"I... Uh, yes I'm fine. Well, have a good year Ron. Harry, it was a pleasure to meet you." Molly said, eyes never leaving Wednesday as she retreated to where he Husband was talking animatedly with the American Wizard. The children watched as she hissed something to him, his eyes bugged out, and he stared over at them. They hissed back and forth, then spoke softly to the Salem Professor, then stared some more.

"Blimey. Mum never reacted like that, even to Harry here." Ron blurted, staring at Wednesday. "Who are you?"

"I believe I already said." Wednesday said tonelessly, idly rubbing her Raven's beak as he cawed softly.

"Yeah, but I mean, I don't get it?"

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," The dark young girl said before walking back to the American group.

Xander glanced her way, then to where Harry and Ron were standing, and made a quick decision. "I'll see you guys around school, maybe on the train."

Then he followed after her.

"Weird." Ron said, shaking his head.

Harry raised an eyebrow, looking around the platform at the various oddities he could see, then looked back at Ron.

"What?"

Harry just chuckled.

* * *

On the train the group filled up two compartments under the supervision of their Professor, who then nodded to them.

"I'll be taking my leave now. Behave yourselves."

"You're leaving us alone?"

"All children go to Hogwarts from this point on their own," He smiled. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just listen to the Prefects and Professors, study hard, and behave yourselves."

They nodded and watched as he left. Xander glanced over at Wednesday, who was seated by the window with the raven on her shoulder. He followed her eyes to where their professor stepped off the train and then with a jerking motion, they were moving.

"I guess it's really happening," he said, feeling a little nervous.

Wednesday just looked at him like he had said the stupidest thing imaginable, shook her head, and looked back out the window. Xander chuckled softly, "Man, it's like dealing with the Anti-Willow."

That comment earned him another sharp look, though with a hint of curiosity rather than exasperation this time. It did not, however, earn him any words. Xander took the hint and joined in a conversation going on next to him between a girl from Colorado and a boy from Texas.

Some time into the trip the door slid open to reveal a young girl with curly hair.

"Hullo," She said, looking around, "Has anyone here seen a frog?"

The kids looked at each other, then back at her and shook their heads.

"Oh drat." She muttered, "Neville lost his somewhere and can't remember where."

"Well I suppose if he could remember where it wouldn't be lost," Wednesday offered dryly.

Xander snickered, quickly looking away.

The girl looked narrowly at them both, but apparently didn't feel like responding. "Well if you do find it, could let us know? It's important, really."

"I could ask Odin to look," Wednesday offered with a gleam in her eyes, "I suspect that he's feeling a little... famished at the moment."

"Odin? Who's..." The girl trailed off, staring at the raven, and paled as she backpedaled, realizing what the 'famished' comment meant. "Urr, no that's quite alright. We'll find him our way, thank you!"

As the girl retreated, Xander sighed and turned to Wednesday, "That was mean, you know that right?"

Wednesday merely shrugged.

Xander shook his head, "I'm going to go see if I can help, I'll let her know you were joking."

"Was I?"

"That's what I'm going to tell her anyway."

"Ah," Wednesday said, tilting her head to one side as Xander left. She looked at the raven, "Odin, please, find the frog."

The bird cawed once, cocking its own head.

"No, don't eat him. Yet anyway."

The bird cawed again and fluttered off, out into the halls as Wednesday crossed her legs and produced a large leather-bound book from her luggage. Everyone in the compartment stared at her until she looked up, matching their gaze. After that, they others quickly found other things to occupy their time.

In the narrow corridors of the train Xander quickly caught up with the curly haired girl, "Hey, sorry about that. Wednesday has a strange sense of humor."

"I can tell."

"She seems alright though," Xander grinned, offering his hand. "Xander Harris."

"Hermione Granger." The girl returned, shaking his hand.

"Cool. Good to meet you, you need a hand finding that frog?"

"Thanks, that would be very nice."

They moved together through the train, poking around where a frog might hide and asking if anyone had seen it with little luck. After a bit they made their way into a nearly empty compartment.

"Excuse me, but have you two seen a frog by any chance?" Hermione asked.

"Hey!" Xander grinned, "Ron, Harry. How's the trip so far?"

"We're goof..." Ron said through mouthfuls of food.

"Snacks? How come I didn't see any snacks!?" Xander instantly complained.

"Were you blind? We past the cart three times."

"Well you had me sticking my head in any corner a frog might hide, how was I supposed to see it?"

"You can have some if you like," Harry offered, smiling.

"You sure?"

"Of course."

"Thanks... what are these anyway?" Xander asked, looking over the pile, hoping for something he recognized.

"Oh hey, are you doing magic?" Hermione focused on Ron, who had his wand out. "May I join you?"

Xander looked over from where he had half a chocolate frog in his mouth, "I tough yuf anted oo ind the rog?"

She didn't even bother looking at him, focusing instead on where Ron was tapping his pet rat with his wand and telling it something about the color yellow. "Well, that's not much of a spell, is it?"

"I'd like to see you do better!" Ron instantly challenged her.

"Well, I've only tried some small spells, but they've all worked perfectly for me," She replied, glancing over at Harry's glasses. "Like this... Oculus Reparo!"

There was a small flash and Harry's jury rigged repairs vanished from his glasses, instantly repairing the scratched lenses and cracked frame.

All three boys stared, impressed.

"That was brilliant!"

"Thank you..."

"Oh, I'm Hermione." She said, glaring at Xander, "Since someone forgot to introduce me."

"Sowwy." Xander shrugged, trying a jelly bean looking thing, then instantly gagging.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Who in the name of all that's holy would make a crazy glue flavored jelly bean!?"

"Those are berty bott's every flavored beans," Ron said, "when they say 'every'..."

"They mean *every*," Xander said, trying to spit the taste out of his mouth. "Gah!"

"I have a better question," Hermione said from where she sat, "How do you know what crazy glue tastes like? I mean, I've heard of eating glue but isn't that a little... strange?"

"What's crazy glue?" Ron asked, confused.

"Don't ask." Xander shook his head, "Let's just say it was a stupid dare, and I regretted it very, very, quickly. I had a piece of popsicle stick stuck to my tooth for three days."

Hermione smothered a laugh as Harry chuckled, but Ron just looked confused.

"What's a popsicle stick?"

Before Xander would answer the door to the compartment slid open again, this time to admit a slim blond boy and two boys that Xander instantly pegged as 'goons'.

"So," The blond announced loudly, "I hear that Harry Potter is on this train, is that true? Are you him?"

Xander glanced toward Harry, who just nodded.

"Well," The blond smiled, arms wide in greeting. "I thought I'd offer to help you out, show you how to avoid making the wrong sort of friends..."

The flick of his eyes to include the rest of the compartment left them with a good idea of who he considered the wrong sort.

"Sod off, Malfoy!" Ron growled.

"Red hair, hand me down robes... must be a Weasely." Malfoy sneered. "Really, I'm surprised any of your lot can even afford to go to Hogwarts."

Ron surged up, but Harry was already between him and Malfoy.

"I think I can tell who the wrong type of friends are on my own, Malfoy." Harry said in a low, serious tone.

The two groups glared at each other for a moment, only to be suddenly interrupted by a loud cawing sound as a black blur flew in and landed on Malfoy's head.

"What is it!? Get it off! Get it off!" The blond screamed, shocked.

Odin, easily riding out the bucking of the boy, tossed his head in the air and catapulted a frog across the room to where it landed in Xander's surprised hands. It cawed again, then cocked its head to one side and looked down at the blond head below, pecking at Malfoy three times before retreating to the frame above the door just before one of the goons pounded the slim boy over the head with a bag full of books.

Xander winced as Malfoy went down in a heap, "That had to hurt."

"Oy!" Ron roared, "Bloody brilliant! Whose bird is that?"

Xander shook his head, not answering as he looked up at the bird with a smirk on his face. "Wednesday, you ol softy."

He turned to Hermione, handing her the frog. "This belongs to your friend, I think?"

"Huh? Right..." She said, accepting it, but her focus was on Harry. "Are you really Harry Potter?"

He sighed, but nodded and pushed his hair back, showing the scar on his forehead.

"Amazing." She whispered, then smiled brilliantly, "I'm so very pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." Harry smiled.

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy was being helped to his feet, wavering unsteadily as he glared up at the raven above him.

"Vile creature! I'll show you..." He muttered, drawing his wand.

"Don't."

The quiet voice startled them all as Draco froze, finding a wand at his throat, attached as it was to a hand and arm that had somehow snaked between his two goons. They parted instantly to reveal a small girl with a blank expression on her face as she looked at him with intense eyes.

"Who are you?"

She didn't answer, merely extended her other arm for the Raven to land on, then backed out of the compartment. Once she was clear she just turned her back on him and walked away.

"Hey! You can't just ignore me!" Draco started to charge out after her, wand in hand.

Xander cut him off, tripping him out into the hallway, leaving him sprawled up against the far wall in a heap. Then Xander stepped on the blond boy as he followed Wednesday, only glancing back to wave goodbye to the others.

"See you in school, guys."

Ron just grinned, his face threatening to split as Draco sputtered and struggled with his two friends as they 'helped' him to his feet.

"Bloody brilliant." The redhead simply said, his voice filled with awe.

* * *

"You didn't have to do that."

Xander glanced to one side, noting that Wednesday wasn't actually looking at him as she spoke, but figured it was directed his way anyway. "Do what?"

"Trip him. I could have handled it."

"I'm sure you could," Xander grinned.

"Then why help me?"

Xander shrugged, "Oddly enough, I find I kinda like you."

The dark girl looked over at Xander, eyes intensely searching his face for a moment, then she looked away and that was the end of the conversation. Xander waited for some response for a little while, then gave up on it. 'Definitely the Anti-Willow.'

He tried not to let it bother him, since he didn't really care whether she was grateful or thanked him, or even was mad at him for what he'd done. He'd heard all the responses since meeting Willow in kindergarten, from hug to slap. Being ignored was a new one, he had to admit, but what the hell, she'd had her Raven find the frog and it hadn't even eaten the little critter. Given it a heart attack, sure, but not eaten.

Similarly she'd stepped in to help Harry when he was lost, not to mention the security guy who was probably closer to some kind of magical brainwashing that Xander really wanted to think about. 'That's wrong isn't it? I mean, they just mess with people's heads? That IS wrong... I think?'

He was getting headache thinking about that, actually. He wasn't used to great moral questions and honestly didn't know the answer. All the comic books he read said that messing with people's heads was really bad stuff though, and he didn't think Professor X would condone it just cause someone saw something he probably didn't even believe.

At just barely eleven years of age, though, Xander already knew that the world was more complicated than that. He knew that drinking was bad, but his parents did it... a lot. In fact, he'd seen adults do a lot of stuff that was supposed to be pretty bad, enough that Xander wasn't really sure that his comics had been telling him the truth all along.

He sighed slightly, but said nothing else as he absently played with Fenrir while the Hogwarts Express rolled on.

* * *

The end of their journey was in the shadow of an imposing castle that brought Xander up short the second he saw it, and he wasn't the only one. Several students caused minor accidents as they stared in shock, nearly getting run over in the process. It was like something out of a fantasy movie, the good kind not the historical crap, with all the trimmings.

He was shocked out of his stupor by a rumbling voice echoing past him, "Firs' Years this way!"

He looked up, eyes widening, then looked up even further as a huge man came stomping in his direction, and Xander started looking around for escape paths just in case.

"Hagrid!"

The familiar voice of Harry Potter and the obviously eager tone calmed Xander down some, as he recognized that the other boy was certainly not afraid of the imposing figure.

"'Ello 'Arry," Hagrid beamed, and right then Xander forgot his fear. This wasn't a man who was going to hurt kids, that was pretty obvious.

Xander moved forward, nodding to Harry, "Hey dude, who's your friend?"

"Dude?" Ron blinked, looking around, "Who's dude?"

Hermione sighed, rolling her eyes, but Harry just grinned, "Xander, this is Hagrid. Hagrid, these are my friends, Xander, Hermione, and Ron."

"Ello everyone, are you ready to go to Hogwarts then?" Hagrid beamed.

They all nodded as the first years slowly gathered around, and were shown to a series of boats that would apparently be taking them across the lake to the castle. With the usual amount of trouble that came with guiding children, Hagrid got his charges where he needed them to go and within just a few minutes was hustling them into the school.

They were standing there, waiting for this 'sorting' ceremony everyone kept talking about, and generally getting impatient, antsy, and nervous in the process when someone screamed, several other's gasped, and Xander turned to find his eyes widening at the sight of several ghosts floating through the far wall, apparently discussing giving someone, or something, a second chance.

The ghosts seemed to notice that they were being watched and paused in front of the assembled students.

"Ah, first years I suppose?"

"Yes Sir."

Everyone, Xander included, turned and gaped at how calmly Wednesday was as the ghosts looked at her.

"About to be sorted?"

"I believe so."

"Good, good," The ghost, who looked like a friar nodded, "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff, young lady. That was my old house you know."

Wednesday didn't change her expression as she gazed up at him, "That's unlikely, Sir."

"Oh?" The Ghost grinned widely, "And why do you say that?"

"I've read the requirements, I don't believe I will be placed there."

"And where you do you expect to be placed?"

The girl shrugged very slightly, "Not Gryffindor either, I expect. So Ravenclaw or Slytherin is my best guess."

The ghosts looked at each other, exchanging more in the glances than anyone could see, then the friar turned back. "I expect we'll find out how right you are shortly, young lady."

The Friar looked back to the others and nodded, "We'll be seeing you around."

As the ghosts floated off Xander noticed everyone shifting away from Wednesday and made a point to move a little closer. "You sure know how to get some extra elbow room."

"I was feeling a little crowded," She deadpanned in response.

"This way children, form a line," A Professor introduced as McGonagall said sternly, appearing practically from nowhere, hustling them into the Great Hall.

As everyone was oohing and aweing at the fantastic night sky above them, Xander heard Hermione speak up.

"It's not real, you know."

"Huh?" Harry blinked, looking at her.

"It's enchanted to look like the sky," She proclaimed, obviously eager to doll out the tidbit of knowledge. Xander almost chuckled at the satisfied look, bordering on true smugness, that crossed her face.

"How do you know that?" Ron practically demanded, his voice just short of an actual challenge.

"I read all about it in Hogwarts, A History."

"Ah," Xander sighed happily, "There's my fix of Willowy goodness. Been missing that."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked over at him, obviously confused.

"Nevermind," Xander said, just smiling easily.

"Right." Ron shook his head.

The redhead was about to say something else, but was interrupted when the Professor brought out an old hat and set it on a chair. They looked on in confusion, and almost everyone jumped as the hat began to SING.

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can top them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a steady mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

Some of the kids hesitantly applauded when it finished, then the professor began calling out names, starting with.

"Addams, Wednesday!"

Xander watched as the dark girl stepped calmly forward and had the hat placed in her head. He seemed to consider for a long time, then finally let out a call.

"Ravenclaw!"

Wednesday set the hat aside and glanced down at the table of her house, then back at Xander for a moment. Finally she nodded to him and walked calmly to the applauding students. Xander clapped too, but he was more interested in the look on the Professor's face as she watched Wednesday nervously the whole time.

One kid after another was called up, then dispatched quickly to one house or another, then after some time it the call was...

"Harris, Alexander!"

Xander swallowed and walked up to the seat, knowing by this point that he just had to put the hat on, so he did. As soon as it was down over his head it began to mumble.

"Hmm... interesting. Very interesting, boy. You're one of the tougher ones to place, I'd say. You've got heart, loyal to a fault. The Hufflepuffs would gladly have you, no question. There's courage here too, though your chivalry is a little rusty..." The hat chuckled at its own joke, just confusing Xander, "Your courage isn't blind, but it's more than enough to stand up to the requirements of a Gryffindor. The best I can say for your mind is that you might survive in Ravenclaw, though I expect you'd wish you hadn't. Still... The only answer I can see is..."

"Slytherin!" The hat yelled out after its long deliberation, and Xander rose up.

He looked around then found the table with green colors and made his way over to it. Some of the table applauded, some were more stoic. Xander suddenly had a bad feeling in his gut as he looked at the adult standing behind the table, glaring at him as he approached.

'Oh man. This is gonna SUCK.' He suddenly realized, having an urge then to turn and rush back, demanding another try with the hat.

Instead he just sat down and tried to make himself invisible as the sorting continued. His sinking feeling continued when the Blond kid he'd tripped on the train was sent instantly over to the Slytherin table, along with his two goons. School was looking to be about as good as it ever did he realized with a sigh, only half paying attention to the sorting until Harry was at the chair with the hat on his head.

There was another long pause as the hat considered, apparently having the same problems with Harry as he had with Xander. Finally, though, the hat let out a roar of "Gryffindor!"

The Red and Gold table erupted then, with kids cheering and yelling 'We got Potter! We Got Potter!'. Xander winced, and could hear the grumbling around his table. 'Harry's got some fans at least.'

Ron and Hermione were also in Gryffindor Xander noted when it was all done, and he found himself sitting across the room from pretty much everyone he personally knew, and beside at least one person he'd found reason to dislike. 'Oh joyous day.'

When the sorting was done the oldest man Xander had ever seen just clapped his hands and suddenly the tables were covered in foods of types Xander had only imagined, and he actually stared for several long moments as everyone else tucked in and began to eat.

He shook it off quickly, grabbing some food of his own, and was well into his meal when a ghostly figure floated into view, apparently sizing up the Slytherin first years. Everyone shied away from him, but Xander had seen Wednesday speak to them earlier and just nodded to the rather gory spectacle as it passed by.

"Hey man, how's it going?"

The ghost paused to look at him closely, leaning in as the two students on either side of Xander shifted away in a hurry. Xander leaned back, frowning, "Uh. No offense, but I'm eating here dude, and the Baron Harkonnen look is kinda freak worthy."

The growl the ghost let out sent a shiver down his back, but Xander stubbornly refused to back down and finally the ghost moved on.

"Doesn't talk much, does he?"

"That was the Bloody Baron!" A student next to him hissed, "No one talks back to the Baron, he's just here to look intimidating."

Xander glanced around and noticed that the other tables all had ghosts floating around them and they seemed to be involved in conversation. He filed the information away and just shrugged, "If he doesn't want me to talk to him, he can tell me himself."

The boy looked at him like he was nuts, but Xander had long since determined that he was in a completely different world and the worst thing he could do right now is look like a pushover. He glanced longingly over at the Ravenclaw table, only to find Wednesday looking back at him, her own position just as isolated as his was. At the Gryffindor table, things were different. Harry and Ron were talking and laughing, and the group was generally enjoying themselves as everyone wrapped up their meal.

As the dishes vanished to wherever they were sent, and Xander made a silent plea to whatever Gods were watching that he wouldn't have to wash the damn things, the oldest guy on the planet stood up and cleared his throat.

Xander listened half-heartedly as he went on with the standard sounding rules that he'd expect, stay out of the forest, behave, yadda, yadda, yadda. When the mention of 'painful death' came up Xander stiffened to attention, focusing on the old man. 'What was that? Third floor?'

While he was still trying to figure it out, however, the Headmaster had moved on.

"And now, before we go to bed, let's all sing the school song!"

Xander frowned, watching as the Headmaster tapped his wand and shot out a ribbon that formed into words.

"Everyone pick your favorite tune!"

Xander found himself compelled to sing along as the whole school roared, the words spilling from him on automatic as his eyes flicked about. Everyone was singing, and not one was using the same tune as far as he could tell. The result was a deafening roar that slowly began to peter out as the faster tunes finished.

Finally it was just two Gryffindor twins, Xander recognized as Ron's brothers, singing in a slow funeral march tune. When they finished people applauded, the Headmaster loudest of all.

"Ah music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes. "Truly, a magic beyond what we do here."

Xander was ignoring him mostly, eyes on the twins as a smiled played around his lips. Those two were gonna be fun, he was willing to bet.

"Alright, off to bed with you."

* * *

He was led to the Slytherin rooms by the Prefects, two tall seventh year students who looked rather dark and dreary in his opinion. They stopped at a painting of a pinch faced woman in English riding gear, staring haughtily out at them as she demanded, "Password?"

"Draconic Fury."

The portrait swing open and Xander and the others got their first view of the Slytherin Common room. It was large, with two fireplaces providing head. Green tapestries covered the walls, and Xander had to admit that the place looked pretty comfortable. Despite the heat from the fireplaces, though, it felt cold as he moved through it. There was just something, cool about the room. Not cool in the good way either, but Xander couldn't decide if it was in a bad way so he let it go.

"Well, well," A sneering voice surprised him, making his turn around to see the boy he'd tripped standing behind him. "Look what we have here."

Xander's heart slammed in his chest, and his stomach tied up in knots. He knew that there was no way he could take the three of them, and those two goons seemed glued to blondie's sides. He sighed, "Draco, right? We have a problem, I suppose?"

"That's Draco *Malfoy* to you," The boy sneered, "And I don't have any problems, but you do. You helped that Gryffindor scum earlier."

"No, I kept you from going after Wednesday Addams, who is in Ravenclaw." Xander corrected, trying not to let his voice pitch upwards from fear. "She is a friend, and I don't know you."

"You should have stayed out of it!" Malfoy snapped, stepping closer.

"You should keep your temper under control," Xander countered, "From what I read, jumping into fights without looking is a *Gryffindor* trait, isn't it?"

Malfoy jerked back like he'd been slapped, frowning as he eyed Xander coldly for a moment. Finally he shrugged, "Fine. I'll give you another chance."

Xander just barely kept from rolling his eyes at the snotty generosity he was being offered. Out loud he just nodded, "Thank you, I'll give you one too."

Then he turned and walked away from the boy, who was tilting between turning purple and blue, apparently too incensed to respond. That was fine with Xander and he joined the group that was being shown to their rooms.

The rooms were in a sub-floor below the common room, no windows, but well-appointed enough to be comfortable just the same. Green seemed to be the color of the day, with white and silver as the preferred accents. Xander tested his bed and found it was more than he was used to, and he had a little hope that maybe... just maybe it wasn't going to suck as much as he thought it was.

He laid down, honestly dog tired, and closed his eyes. In short order he found himself fighting desperately to ward off the wave of homesickness that washed over him as he thought of Willow and Jesse, back home in Sunnydale.

* * *

Classes started off quickly the next morning, with some seriously interesting subjects from Xander's point of view. Charms, Transfigurations, it was all high grade superhero stuff in his mind and for once he was actually cracking the books.

A lot of the novelty wore off pretty quick once he realized that the stuff they were teaching amounted to little more than children's games, and could be done by most stage magicians. Of course stage magicians did it by sleight of hand and trickery, Xander supposed, at least that's what they said.

It did make him wonder.

Charms was pretty interesting, even if the guy who taught it put him in mind of a teacher he'd once had called Snyder. Ok, Flitwick was nicer, and probably a lot better looking, but still the resemblance was there. Still, the Prof aside, charms was cool cause it basically let someone put all kinds of spells on normal objects, letting them do some cool things. Xander could already see some interesting possibilities there, but he was going to need to get ahold of his comic collection in order to review and consider them.

The problem was, however, that it was damned HARD to make them stupid things work.

Swish and flick. Right. Xander was only eleven years old, but he could make SO many off color jokes about swish and flick that he was really happy no one back home could see him trying to do simple charms right now. The ability to completely unchange anything to do with the object would NOT make up for the humiliation he'd get from Larry, or the sneers from Cordy.

Still, if he could pull it off, well... It had possibilities to be sure.

Transfigurations was something else that was kinda cool, though it interested him slightly less. Changing one thing into another was good in a pinch, but honestly if he wanted a flower he could go pick one, he didn't have to turn a piece of paper into it. Certainly he couldn't think of any good reason to turn a match into a needle, not that he was ABLE to turn a match into a needle, but the point was still there.

The week progressed much like that, and Xander was pretty relieved to find that no one seemed to have a huge lead on him or anyone else. Hermione was, pretty clearly, a Willow-smart witch, and she was going to build a lead on him to be sure, but for the moment just about everyone was within sight of his own starting position.

Many of his classes were conducted with Gryffindor, interestingly enough, since most of Slytherin seemed to despise the 'kitty cats', and it was pretty clear that the cats didn't much care for the snakes. That made those classes the next thing to unbearable if one was stupid enough to be caught between the active combatants in the two sided turf war.

Xander made it a point not to sit anywhere near Draco and his Cronies, or the 'Potter Crew'.

After classes, though, was when things got pretty bad. Slytherin was a house divided, and Xander wondered if it was the same in the others. To the outside, Slytherin stood fairly tightly united it was true, but Xander thought that was because most of the school seemed to hate them and that made them tighten ranks.

From the inside, though, it was clear that there were schisms so deep someone could fall into them and be lost forever.

Xander nearly did just that on his second day.

* * *

"Mudblood scum..."

Xander didn't know what the first word meant, but the second word and tone filled it in nicely as he stepped up into the Slytherin common room and found himself once again staring at Draco and his goon squad, this time bullying a Slytherin boy.

"I don't know HOW you could possibly have been sorted into this house," Draco sneered as the boy crawled back, bleeding from his nose as the Draco and the two larger boys loomed over him.

"Probably cause the hat put him here," Xander said sarcastically from where he was leaning on a door frame.

Draco spun on him, eyes widening, "Stay out of this!"

"You've had your fun, leave him alone." Xander said, again fighting the urge to shake as he always did when dealing with kids who could beat him to a pulp. "What'd he do anyway?"

"He was in my way," Draco smirked.

"Next time you'll probably have less trouble if you ask him to move," Xander noted, surprised by his own calm.

Draco and the other two turned on him, leaving the other boy alone. "I see you didn't take my advice to heart. Standing up for this sort of scum is a sure way to take his place."

"Yeah well, I've done that before," Xander muttered under his breath.

Of course, he didn't even *know* the other kid, and that was a bit unusual. Normally he wouldn't put himself in this position for just anyone. Getting the crap beat out of him for a stranger was gonna suck.

There was no changing Draco's focus now, though, and Xander tensed as the two monoliths moved to flank him.

"Alright! That's enough!" The four of them jumped as the Slytherin Prefect moved in, breaking up the conflict with a glare in Xander's direction. "We don't fight each other."

"Tell that to Drac and his goon squad," Xander retorted.

"You don't know how things work here, so I'm going to let that go," The older boy growled, "But we are Slytherin, no one else gives a damn about us, so we sure as hell don't fight each other."

Xander glanced pointedly over at the boy Draco had been bullying, who was getting to his feet and wiping his nose clean.

"If he wants to survive here, he'll toughen up fast."

That was the only answer he got out it.

* * *

As rough as it was for him, Xander didn't see where it was much better for Wednesday. He didn't have many classes with the Ravenclaw's, so he didn't have a clue how she was doing there, but whenever he saw her around she seemed as alone as he was.

He made a point of checking up with her every day, at least once or twice, but didn't really get much information from her when he did. Still, she didn't ignore him entirely as she did pretty much everyone other than professors, and they soon were to be found sitting near one another when they had time. By the third day, ironically Wednesday, Xander was talking to her about his experiences in class and out.

On Thursday, she finally said something back.

He was talking about the fractions he'd seen in his own house, and the level of crap Draco and a few others put out when she looked over at him and simply said, "Why don't you put a stop to it?"

Xander looked at her sharply, "Have you seen the two gargoyles he has with him? Even if Drac was the kinda guy who could take a hint, he won't with those two bookends. I'm starting to think I should have stayed home. School wasn't always easy there, but at least I didn't have to worry about being killed in my sleep."

Wednesday shrugged, "It seems to me that he's not being very Slytherin."

"Yeah, you get that too?" Xander frowned, thinking to what he'd read, "There's not very many that are, you know. Is it the same in your house?"

"No. Everyone is very interested in learning," She said in response, "At least..."

"What?"

"They're close minded," Wednesday said, almost sighing. "They want to learn from books and teachers, but they don't want to know about anything that doesn't fit into their nice little box shaped world."

Xander found himself staring, impressed that she could string that many words together in one go. He considered her words, though, thinking about it, "I wonder about the other houses."

"Why?"

"Just curious mostly. You say that your house has some really intelligent stupid people, I know that my house seems to be heavy on the ruthless ambition, really light on the cunning. Wonder what the other two are like?"

Wednesday shrugged, "Probably the same, in different ways."

Xander chuckled, nodding. "Yeah."

He sighed, shaking his head. "Alright. Fine. I'm Slytherin, whatever the hell that means. I guess I better learn to act like it."

Wednesday looked over at him, raising a single elegant eyebrow, "Oh?"

"Don't worry," Xander smirked, "I'm not going to go overboard on the ruthless ambition, but a little cunning seems to be in order."

"Indeed." Wednesday said softly.

"And from the sounds of it, you may need to start teaching the Ravenclaws a few lessons too," He suggested.

Wednesday considered that. Honestly she didn't care what they thought, or didn't think, about her. She was here for her own advancement, not theirs. Still, she was growing bored with their attitudes, and the lessons were mindlessly simple enough to leave her with too much free time, so... perhaps a few games were in order.

"Perhaps you are right," She said.

Xander smirked, "I know I am. Now, let me know if you need any help."

She nodded to him, "And you do the same."

* * *

Friday brought Double Potions with Gryffindor House, which really didn't seem to be a good thing from what Xander could tell. Half the other kids around him wanted to strangle the Gryffs, and the other half seemed to be afraid of them to one degree or another. Malfoy was leading the first group, of course, and he seemed particularly eager to get to class.

Xander figured out why pretty quickly when the Professor turned out to be the head of Slytherin House, the sallow faced man who'd watched the sorting ritual with an impassive glare the day before. He opened his lecture with a long spiel on bottling fame and putting a stopper in death, most of which flew right over Xander's head, then turned almost immediately on Harry with a sneer that only seemed to get worse as the seconds ticked by.

The Slytherins who'd surrounded Malfoy seemed amused by it, snickering softly as Potter was put on the spot, and Xander was pretty happy with his position suddenly. He didn't think he'd stand a chance in hell of passing this course if he had to deal with that level of contempt.

He was watching Draco, though, and mentally making notes.

From what he could tell Harry was a pretty famous guy, and that was both good and bad. It had taken him only a little time to get the story from someone. Having his parents killed off had to suck, no doubt. Xander's mom and dad were pains sometimes, but living without them? Xander couldn't imagine it. They were his mom and dad.

It was also pretty obvious that Harry was above average in classes, though for the moment that didn't mean much of anything. As far as Xander could tell, though, the other boy had done nothing to earn the intense level of dislike from Draco.

Or Snape, for that matter, Xander noted as Snape continued to rip into Harry with question after question that he knew that HE couldn't answer. That went on until another Gryff, Xander thought was Neville, suddenly started breaking out in the worst acne Xander had seen since Jessie's older brother turned fifteen. His attention diverted, Snape tore into Neville for a bit until finally settling down to teach the class.

Lots of stuff just didn't add up, and Xander would be damned if he could figure it out. He'd run it by Wednesday later, for now he had to figure out how he was supposed to brew this gunk without winding up looking like Neville.

* * *

Information gathering was slow, Xander found out over the week. There were so many things under the surface that he didn't know about. Wednesday had come through, telling him quietly that Draco's old man had been some kind of cultist back in the day, and the dimwit who got himself killed by a kid was the top dog of the group.

Which explained some things a bit, anyway. Harry supposedly offs the head dork, so all the lesser twits are left out to dry. Probably a lot of grudges there, even if it was pretty stupid to blame a kid for something like that. Xander wondered for a bit how Wednesday had found out, but decided he probably didn't want to know.

What he didn't know wouldn't get him expelled. He hoped.

Flight lessons were up next, and Xander had to admit... flying? Now that was major league cool.

They'd all turned out on the grounds, with brooms of all things being passed out, and the professor looking very sternly at each of them.

"Alright, put your hand over your brooms and say 'up!'"

Xander frowned, doing as he was told. The broom shivered a bit, but that was it. It wasn't the worst result in the class, not by a long shot, but Draco and Harry got theirs into their hands on the first try. Xander scowled at the broom, "UP!"

The broom broke loose of the ground, missing his outstretched hand, and smacked him right in the face. Xander flopped back, hitting the ground with an expellation of air, and stared up as the broom floated above him for a few seconds, then dropped back onto his face for a second shot at him.

Both houses were laughing to varying degrees as the professor rushed over.

"Are you alright?"

Xander didn't answer as he glared at his broom, "Of course, you realize, this means war."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Ma'am," Xander sighed, getting to his feet. "Just caught me by surprise that's all..."

A scream startled Xander and the professor, and they both turned to see Neville rocket into the air like he was heading for orbit, his broom wildly yanking him along for the ride of his life. Hopefully not the LAST ride of his life. The professor, Madam Hooch went running after him, screaming at him to calm down until his ride ended with a crashing thud into the ground.

Xander winced when they were told he'd broken his wrist, and were ordered to stay on the ground or be expelled.

No problem. He glared at his broom, entirely unwilling to give the damned thing another chance to off him.

"Give it back, Malfoy!"

Xander turned to see Malfoy playing keep away with something golden and frowned. 'God, does this guy have to cause trouble at every opportunity?'

He moved closer, unsure what to do, only to have the point rendered moot when Malfoy grabbed his broom and flashed into the air, challenging Harry to chase him. The look on his face when Potter did just that was amusing, but now Xander found himself looking around to see if the professor was anywhere in sight, and wondering how in the hell he could keep them from getting expelled if she came back early.

Again, however, he didn't have time to do anything as the duo took their dogfight on the road, so to speak, and dueled through the air over the school in what had to be one of the coolest games of tag Xander'd ever seen.

It ended when Malfoy tossed the object away, Harry dove after it, caught it after a death defying brush with the ground, and was caught by his own head of house.

'Yeah. I see why he was sent to the Gryffs.' Xander thought, shaking his head. 'Being gutsy is one thing, but I don't care what the hell Malfoy stole, it wasn't worth getting killed OR expelled over. That was just reckless, not brave.'

* * *

Of course being reckless sometimes paid off as Xander found out a couple days later. Malfoy was fuming so hard Xander half expected him to spontaneously combust, and Harry was the reason why. Not only had he somehow survived Malfoy's various schemes, but he was apparently now playing in the school teams for some kind of sport Xander had never heard of.

It was amusing and all, but honestly Xander didn't have time to pay any attention to it.

Classes were getting harder, and the life in the Slytherin dorms was getting tenser.

There were two distinct factions, Xander had learned, mostly being defined by the second years and older. The pure bloods, as they called themselves, were the first and strongest. They were probably about three quarters of the house, and basically lorded it over everyone else. Malfoy, though a first year, was solidly in their camp and even fairly high up in the actual ranks as far as Xander could tell.

His family name had some serious clout, otherwise the various humiliations he'd already endured would have done some more damage to his influence.

The other group was, well, everyone else.

'Muggle-born', 'Half Bloods', and a couple 'Pure Bloods' who'd made a stand. There were also several students of varying years that were pretty clearly neutral. They were all pure bloods as far as Xander could tell, the only classification that *could* be neutral. Xander himself was a bit of an odd duck, he found.

He didn't talk about his family, and he sure as hell wasn't going to start now, so no one was sure where he belonged. His being a 'Colonial' both reduced and protected his status. On the one hand, he was a barbarian from the states, but on the other they had no way to check on his parentage or bloodlines. It gave him a certain degree of latitude that many others weren't afforded, but it was pretty clear that he *wasn't* going to be joining the pure blood group anytime in the near future.

All things considered, Xander figured his best bet was keep his head down, don't cause waves, and hopefully go to Salem Academy in the next year.

* * *

They finally got a chance at some cool stuff in Charms class, when Professor Flitwick told them that they were ready to start making things fly. Of course, start was the key word. Xander found himself muttering the Wingardium Leviosa spell over and over again, to varying results. The only one of which that resembled 'flight' was when his feather exploded in a fiery rain of death and destruction that sent a plume of smoke three feet into the air over his head.

Actually, it was pretty cool for all that.

Xander was quickly distracted, like most of the rest of the class, by the Gryffindor side of the table where Ron Weasley was complaining about the impossibility of the task. Hermione almost instantly jumped on his case, her tone making Xander smile subconsciously as he clearly heard her correcting the red head.

"You're saying it wrong," She told him, her voice travelling clearly across the entire room. "It's Wing Gar Dium Levio Sa."

Xander only winced slightly as he saw Ron redden, instantly recognizing that the boy had a fair bit too much pride for his own good. Jessie did the same thing when Willow first tried correcting him, and it had taken a lot of work to keep the two from killing each other at first.

"If you're so good, you do it then!" Ron challenged her.

Xander shook his head, now wincing for real as he actually smiled.

"What are you smirking at, Harris?"

Xander looked over at Malfoy, then nodded to the Gryffs, "Ronny boy over there just walked right into a wall. Watch."

Malfoy looked over as Hermione did a perfect swish and flick, clearly incanting the charm, and rose her feather with near perfect control.

"Five bucks says Ronny turns red enough to hide in front of one of Gryffindor's tapestries." Xander said, chuckling.

Malfoy found himself snickering slightly at the other boy's obvious discomfort, then spoke up loud enough for the class to hear, "Good lord, Weasely, can't you even get a simple charm right?"

Xander grimaced, knowing damn well that Malfoy hadn't done one yet himself, and yanked the blond back into his seat as Ron and Harry glared over at him.

"Take your hands off me you... you... *American*." Draco hissed.

"Don't be an idiot. What are you going to do if Ron challenges you to do better? Do you think you can cast better than her?" Xander hissed right back, "Cause I've known a girl just like that, and I'll bet anything you like that she can out cast you on anything in the books."

Draco stiffened, "That little mudblood? I'm far more powerful..."

"Maybe, but my money says she's smarter. That's not an insult, by the way," Xander said, sitting back and trying to look normal. "She's way smarter than me, and I know it. From what she said on the train she's not from a magical family, so you probably know more stuff... but what she's got in her books? Trust me, don't challenge her on it. That's her own territory."

Draco glared at him, but by then the class had settled down and moved on. Xander honestly didn't know how the hell half the people in his House had gotten there. They were obviously NOT the cunning type and, the more he watched them, the more it was clear they weren't even the ambitious or even ruthless types either. Oh, there was no doubt that most of them could be as brutal as all get out, but there was a certain level of... finesse assumed when you talked about being 'ruthless', and finesse was NOT the forte of any of the students he'd met so far.

Malfoy was obviously one of the top dogs, even though he was a 'firstie' like Xander. His family name had some power, and he obviously swung a lot of clout around with his dad's money bags. The two knuckle draggers that followed him around were proof of that. Pansy Parkinson had ambition, the way she tried sucking up to Draco made that clear, but the girl scored zero points of finesse and that was being polite.

It was a lot like watching Cordelia and her sheep squad back home, really. Draco was the closest Xander could identify to an actual Slytherin by the qualities he'd read, but he was obviously either too stupid or too ignorant of how the world worked to make use of his advantages. Even at eleven years old Xander knew that there was simply no reason to court as much disfavor as Draco did, no matter how much money you had. It was like the boy was actively TRYING to get three quarters of the school angry with him.

Most of the rest were worse than that, and that was being polite about things. There were a few, of course, that Xander couldn't really put a read on. Daphne Greengrass, for one. She was pretty standoffish so far, and didn't go out of her way to attract any attention. The quiet ones were the ones to worry about, Xander decided. At least in the long term, Draco was likely to be a short term pain in the ass.

Charms class broke up, interrupting Xander's thoughts, and leaving with another exploded feather and a couple disgruntled housemates shooting glares in his direction. He sighed and shrugged it off, stopping short though when they stepped out of the class room.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron was saying, grumbling as he spoke, his words easily audible to everyone in the hall. "She's a nightmare, really."

Hermione Granger stifled a sob and pushed quickly past them, bolting down the hall. Xander shook his head and walked up behind the duo as Harry looked over at Ron.

"I think she heard you."

"No duh." Xander said clearly, slapping Ron in the back of the head.

"Oi!" The Gryffindor yelped, twisting around as he held his head.

"If you're going to be a sneak and talk behind someone's back," Xander said sarcastically, "Try and have the *cunning* to make sure they're not standing behind YOUR back at the time."

The Slytherins behind Xander laughed openly as Xander paused and looked at Harry. "Well?"

"Well what? I didn't say anything!" Harry said defensively.

Xander rolled his eyes, "Fine. I'll do it."

Before either Harry, or the rapidly reddening Ron Weasley could say anything else Xander had pushed through and headed after Hermione.

The two looked at each other, "What was that about?"

"He's totally barmy." Ron shrugged, "Total nutter."

"You two are useless tools," Daphne Greengrass said, rolling her eyes as she walked past.

"Hey!" Ron objected loudly.

"What did I do!?" Harry asked, his tone plaintive.

The blond shook her head and walked regally past, "If you can't figure it out, I'm certainly not going to tell you."

"Nutters." Ron said, shaking his head, "They're all nutters."

Draco chuckled nastily as he walked past, "My, My Potter, you're certainly scoring all kinds of points today aren't you?"

Harry and Ron glared at Draco as he walked past, and they both heard him as he chuckled and went on.

"Maybe Harris isn't such a waste, he seems to know how to put Weasley in his place at least."

Ron started to turn an alarming puce color, causing Harry to grab his arm, "Come on, it's time for lunch."

"Right, mate. Lunch."

* * *

Xander sighed, frustrated by the castle he was wandering through. He was missing a class, trying to find a crying girl he barely knew, and the damn place kept changing shape. He was about to give up when a ghost floated past.

"Hey! Spooky!"

The shimmering figure paused, looking back at him, then back down the hall.

"Pardon?" The floating figure asked quizzically. "Are you speaking to me?"

"Yeah, have you seen a crying girl come through here?"

The figure didn't answer him for a moment, looking Xander over. "You're Slytherin."

"Duh." Xander muttered, "Look, pal, I'm trying to find a girl who ran through here some time ago."

"But you're a Slytherin."

Xander frowned, "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Slytherin's don't talk to me, I'm the Gryffindor Ghost."

"What? What kind of stupid rule is that?"

The ghost looked taken aback for a moment, then blinked, "Well I suppose it's not a *rule* per say, but it's just not done."

Xander sighed, "Look, did you see her or not?"

"Well, yes, actually." The ghost said, "But she's Gryffindor too."

"So? She's *crying* dude!"

The Ghost looked truly perplexed, head cocked to look at Xander closely. "Are you SURE you're Slytherin?"

Xander growled and stomped forward, actually passing right through the ghost and continuing down the hall. "Stupid effin ghosts... Dumbass Gryffindor ghosts... stupid house bullsh-"

The Ghost known as Nearly Headless Nick watched the young Slytherin stomp off and bemusedly shook his head, causing it to wobble slightly. "Well he certainly has the Slytherin grumpiness down..."

Nick turned after a moment and followed, curious and slightly concerned as well, but remained far enough back to be out of sight.

* * *

The first clue Xander really got to Hermione's location was a small gaggle of girls walking through the hall ahead of him, whispering loudly and gasping.

"Hey!"

The girls, who were wearing Hufflepuff colors, shrieked in surprise as he approached, then got ahold of themselves and eyed him warily.

"What?"

"Did you see Hermione come through here?"

The girls looked at each other, then back at him, "Why would you want to know where a Gryffindor is?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "I just do, ok?"

They eyed him darkly, "Well we never saw her."

The three stuck their noses up and walk passed him, leaving Xander completely confused as to what just happened. He shook his head, and thought about it. The last time he'd had to go looking for Willow after Cordelia had ripped into her he'd gotten the same reaction from another group of girls who'd blamed him for making Willow cry.

Since he was a Slytherin 'asshole', that was probably the case here too. Xander sighed, shaking his head.

'Ok... Hermione is like a Willow clone, right? Where would Will go?' Xander pondered, frowning.

Well, the library came to mind, but actually that wasn't likely. Willow loved the library, but she never went there when she was sad. Ok, what else? Xander grimaced, remembering that he'd had to pull Willow out of the girls bathroom the last time, and had caught a lot of heat for it.

He sighed, steeling himself, and started looking for the closest girl's washrooms.

* * *

Nick watched idly as the young Slytherin found the lavatory the girl was hiding in and pounded on the door, calling out as soft as he could while still hoping to be heard on the other side. Oddly enough the boy seemed to actually be trying to comfort the Gryffindor girl. It was rather perplexing, actually. Nick tried to think of the last time a Slytherin had acted quite like this, and had to think back more than a few years. Before Grindlewald, actually.

Of course, back then, Slytherins didn't have quite as bad a reputation as they had garnered lately. Oh, they weren't universally loved, to be sure, but they were respected at least as much as feared. It was really quite interesting, the old Gryffindor spirit mused.

He really would have to speak with the Baron about it.

* * *

"Hermione?" Xander hissed, far louder than he wanted as he pounded on the door. "Are you in there?"

With no answer forthcoming, he steeled himself and pounded again. "Is anyone there? I'm coming in!"

"Go away!"

Xander sighed, relaxing slightly as he recognized the voice as belonging to the genius of Gryffindor House. "Come on, Hermione. The carrot top didn't mean what he was spouting, he was just trying to save face."

"I said go away!"

"Damn it." Xander groaned, "I hate this part."

He was about to open the door when a lumbering sound caught his attention and he half turned to look down the hall. His eyes grew wide as he watched the HUGE figure moving in his direction and he yelped, throwing the door open quickly and then slamming it behind him as he braced his back against the door.

"You can't come in here!" Hermione shrieked, "This is the GIRL'S Lavatory!"

"I really hope that HE knows that!" Xander snapped back.

"He?" The girl frowned, confused. "He who?"

Before Xander could answer the door shook behind him, throwing him clear across the room into a skid that finished him with lying at the floor by Hermione's feet, one hand scrambling to draw his wand as the other pointed. "He, Him, Who, Him, Him!"

Hermione's stared down at Xander, face confused, but then she looked up as the door shuddered again and cracked opened, revealing a huge troll as it bent over and entered the room. Hermione did what almost any child her age would do in that situation.

She screamed.

Xander winced, scrambling to his feet as he pushed her behind him. "What IS that thing!?"

Faced with a question, Hermione reacted according to her nature and answered, sounding remarkably calm for someone who had just let out a blood curdling shriek of terror.

"It looks like a Mountain troll. Th... There aren't many of them in this area, and none are su-supposed to be able to get past Hogwarts w-wards."

"Great. We had to get the genius troll." Xander muttered, waving his wand threateningly, hoping that the thing had some fear of them as many animals had fear of guns. If it didn't, well Xander didn't actually know any spells that he could use here so...

"A little help here!?" He muttered, still pushing Hermione behind him as he backed away from the thing, waving his wand futilely as the troll clearly indicated no fear of either him or his stick.

"How!?" Hermione blurted in his ear, "It's a *Mountain troll*!"

"You're the book genius, right!?" Xander growled, flinching back as the Troll swung its club past them hard enough for the air to blast them in the face.

"It's a TROLL!" Hermione screamed at him, "Sure I know how to cast a stunner, but I'm not remotely strong enough to..."

"I don't CARE! It's not like we have a lot of other options!"

"Fine!" She huffed, all signs of fear gone from her face and voice as she snapped at Xander, "You move your wand like this and say *STUPIFY*!"

A faded red glow burst from her wand, splattering against the troll's face and caused it to snap back for a second, shaking like it had just been slapped. Then it growled at them and hefted its club for a heavy swing, roaring its anger.

"Are you happy now!?" Hermione screamed, "We made it MAD!"

"Oh yes, because it was trying to take SUCH good care of us before!" Xander snarled, twisting as he did, then grabbing her and spinning around. He used the force of his spin to throw her clear as he was tossed back in the other direction, just missing the splintering crash of the Troll's hammer as it crushed the stonework of the bathroom.

Hermione was sprawled in the corner as the Troll turned on her, and Xander shook himself as he got to his hands and knees and thrust out his wand.

"STUPIFY!"

The blast was much brighter as the discharge slammed into the Troll, but the effect was largely the same. It did, however, momentarily confused the troll into trying to decide between two targets. As it stared dumbly at them for a moment the door behind it burst open to reveal Ron and Harry, who froze for a moment themselves when presented with the Troll in real life.

Then Hermione screamed again and everyone unfroze.

The Troll turned at her, hefting its club again, and the two boys burst into action. They charged in, trying to tackle it from behind, only to be thrown clear. Ron hit the ground sliding, then slammed into the far wall with brutal force, leaving Harry hanging on for dear life as the Troll tried to knock him clear.

Harry beat at the Troll's head as best he could, his fists bruising, but to little other effect, then reached around to pummel its face. The Troll grunted, more in frustration than any degree of pain, until Harry somehow managed to drive his wand up the Troll's nose.

THAT apparently either hurt or really embarrassed the big guy, Xander noted as it howled and started striking at its back with renewed vigor. Xander was about ready to try the stunner again when Ron Weasley let out a yell.

"Wingardium LEVIOSA!"

Xander blinked, confused. 'What the hell is he trying to levitate!?'

The answer came when the troll's own club rose up, then slammed back down on its head, dropping troll and Harry to the floor.

A deep silence fell over the washroom, panting breaths of the four students the only thing breaking it for a long moment, then a screech from outside startled them all into turning with wands at the ready.

"What is HAPPENING here!?" Professor McGonagall snapped, striding in with Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore on her heels. The three found themselves looking down the wands of four first years, who were in various states of distress but looked like they were uninjured.

"Uh..." Harry said, looking around. "We uh..."

"It's my fault, professor..." Hermione began, only to be cut off.

"No, it's ours. Right, Harry?" Ron cut in.

Harry blinked, then nodded, "Yeah. We heard about the troll and..."

Ron looked around furiously, "And we thought we could handle him, right?"

Xander shook his head as the Head of Gryffindor House grew redder and redder. "Bullshit."

Everyone stopped and stared at him in shock.

"Mr. HARRIS!" McGonagall snapped, "Five points from Slytherin for your language!"

"Explain yourself, Harris." Snape hissed.

Xander pointed at Ron, "He said something stupid, Hermione was hurt by it, she came here to compose herself. I followed, we never heard about the troll. I'm guessing those two did..."

The two Gryffindor's nodded miserably.

Xander shrugged, then went on, "And decided to save their friend. Why they're making up some dumbass story, I don't know, cause it's not like anyone did anything wrong in the first place..."

He paused, then shrugged, "Except Weasely, who should learn to keep his mouth shut if he doesn't have anything nice to say."

Ron turned bright beat red as Xander shrugged past them, then paused by the teachers and looked up at his head of house. "Just in case, Sir... How *does* one stop a Mountain Troll? That stunner really didn't work."

Snape stared, one eyebrow rising, "You successfully cast a Stunner?"

Xander nodded, "Hermione too. Didn't work on that thing."

"Excellent spell work," Snape replied, "Five points to Slytherin. We'll speak later."

"And five to Gryffindor as well," McGonagall said, nodding to Hermione, before she turned on Ron and Harry. "However five points from each of your for not following instructions to return to your dorm rooms. Now come along, we'll get you checked out."

Through it all the Headmaster remained silent, eyes twinkling as he carefully set the scene in his mind to reexamine later.

* * *

"Poppy says that they're all fine," Dumbledore said with a sigh as he took a seat and faced the professors sitting in his office.

"Well thank goodness," Minerva said, shaking just slightly. The thought of how close those students had come to serious injury or worse shook even her Gryffindor courage, more than any attack on her own person ever had. "What were those boys thinking!?"

"That they were idiotic Gryffindors," Snape replied, snorting.

Minerva shot him a scowl, but it was weakened by the fact that the headmaster seemed to find the comment amusing, and even Fillius was chuckling softly. "All very well for you to laugh, if they had been hurt however..."

Dumbledore held up his hand as the laughter stopped, "We know, Minerva, and the only reason we can laugh is that it's over and they're fine. Still, Severus does have a point... Ronald and Harry were acting as one might expect for Gryffindor students who thought a friend might be in danger."

"True." She sighed, then frowned slightly. "What about Mr. Harris? He had no reason to be there."

"True as well," Severus replied with a matching scowl. "By all accounts he went looking for Miss Granger when Weasley shot his mouth off after charms class."

Fillius nodded, "I heard the altercation... to be honest, at the time I thought that Mr. Harris was merely taking advantage of an opportunity to score points off a Gryff."

"That doesn't seem to be the case," Albus Dumbledore said slowly, "The impression I received was quite different. Do Mr. Harris and Miss Granger know one another?"

"Not to my knowledge," Snape shrugged as the others agreed.

Minerva couldn't help but twit her colleague slightly, smirking as she spoke, "I suppose he was just being particularly courageous then... like Gryffindor, one might say."

"And one might NOT." Snape snapped, eyes glinting.

Dumbledore looked on in amusement as the two sniped back and forth for a few moments, then interjected, "Now, now, quiet the two of you. Merely because one is a Slytherin hardly eliminates courage from the assets one might wield. You of all people know this, Severus."

Snape scowled, but didn't respond.

Pomona Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house, took that moment to toss a little more fat on the fire as the case may be. "Personally, I appreciated the Hufflepuff loyalty they showed one another."

Albus fiercely locked down on open laughter as both Severus and Minerva turned on the head of Hufflepuff house, their ire dripping from them as they defended the 'honor' of their houses. He shouldn't find it so amusing, he supposed, but Severus and Minerva were so rarely on the same side of an argument... let alone so enthusiastic about it, that he couldn't help but find it comical.

"That's enough," He broke in gently, eyes dancing as he again calmed them down, then glanced at the one head of house who hadn't put in his own two sickles worth, "Unless you have something to add, Fillius?"

The short head of Ravenclaw merely smirked and shook his head, "No, I don't believe any of them acted intelligent enough to be admired by a Ravenclaw, though Ronald's creative use of a levitation spell warrants a mention I suppose."

Dumbledore did chuckle that time, nodding, "Quite so. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, actually," Fillius broke in, "It's unrelated, however..."

"Please, Fillius, what is on your mind?"

"I'd like to ask the Hat about one of my students," Fillius said softly.

The other heads of house turned to look at him, curious. Most years no one felt any need to inquire after the Hogwarts sorting hat about its choices, however it did come up on occasion.

"Indeed? Who, Fillius?"

"Miss Addams." Fillius admitted, shivering slightly. "The girl had literally terrified every girl in her year, and most of the boys as well."

Dumbledore sat back, "In what way?"

Fillius shook his head, "Honestly, I'm not sure. She's not *done* anything I can find... Personally I think it's just her very attitude, combined with the way she speaks. She's quite intimidating."

Snape snorted, shaking his head. "Really, Fillius, intimidated by a first year."

"Have you paid any attention to her in class?" Fillius challenged.

"Not that I recall," Snape shrugged, then frowned. "Now that I think of it, she does seem to sit alone mostly. Quiet, studious... typical Ravenclaw."

Fillius quivered in place, obviously holding back some explosive retort. "Typical Ravenclaw students don't calmly speak of chaining their fellows up in the dungeon and *playing* with Mr. Filch's artifacts."

Snape raised a single eyebrow, "Indeed. Well now, that IS interesting. Albus?"

The teachers looked to the headmaster, who sighed. "The Addamses are a very old family with... well known proclivities."

Minerva snorted, "They're a bloody menace, you mean."

"No, I do not Minerva," Dumbledore said sternly, "And I will thank you not to put words in my mouth."

The Gryffindor headmaster flushed, but nodded.

"No Addams has ever gone... precisely... Dark, as we mean the term," Albus sighed. "That is to say, none have ever attempted to force their beliefs on anyone else. By any definition, they are a very dark family, but they strongly believe that people must make their own decisions. No Addams would have ever joined with Voldemort, I can assure you Fillius."

After shuddering slightly at the mention of You-Know-Who's name, Flitwick nodded, "Still I would like to hear from the sorting hat, if you don't mind."

Albus nodded and rose, turning to retrieve the hat from its place on his shelves. "You have been listening?"

"Of course." The Hat replied.

"Have you anything to add?" Albus asked softly.

The hat was silent for a moment, then began, "In Ravenclaw or Slytherin, that girl would go. Either house would be proud to claim her, I promise you both. The Raven's mind will trump the snake's cunning, though, and her future is a great one."

Albus frowned, then nodded, "Well there you have it, Fillius."

The head of Ravenclaw didn't look happy, but he nodded.

"Pardon," Snape leaned forward, "What of Mr. Harris, Hat? He's been caught in several fights within Slytherin House already, and tonight's excursion with the *kittens* of Gryffindor have me curious."

Minerva stiffened, glaring at Snape, but before anyone could say anything the hat spoke up.

"Ah, Alexander. The Heart of any Gryffindor, the Soul of any Hufflepuff." The hat replied coolly.

That sufficiently redirected the ire of Minerva McGonagall from Snape. "What!? You put one of my Griff's in *Slytherin*!?"

Sprout's reaction was remarkably similar.

"A Hufflepuff in Slytherin!? Are you insane!?"

"Minerva, Pomona, please." Albus sighed, calming them, then he looked at the hat, "Please, explain yourself."

The hat took a moment, then began to speak again.

"At Gryffindor's side, this one would stand tall, In Hufflpuff's embrace he would only survive... Molded by Slytherin's fist, however, this boy will *thrive*."

The professor's looked at one another, more than slightly shocked.

"What does that mean?" Sprout demanded, "Only survive? You said he had a Hufflpuff's soul!"

The Hat, however, had said what it intended and would speak no more.

Albus frowned, sitting back as the professors argued, primarily Sprout and McGonagall he noted. Severus was glaring at the hat, his own thoughts occluded behind the Slytherin's impressive shields. After a few more moments of argument, he leaned forward.

"Well, I think that explains things." Albus said calmly.

"What!?" The two turned on him.

He smiled at them both, "I too have observed young Alexander, and I believe I agree with the Hat. He is most certainly brave, and would do acceptably in Gryffindor. He does seem to lack certain Slytherin traits that I found perplexing until just now... however, with the hat's comments concerning Hufflepuff, I believe I understand."

"Well explain it to me!" Sprout huffed.

"The sorting hat's job isn't to place people in houses that fit their personality, contrary to popular opinion," Albus said, surprising them into silence.

"It's... not?" Minerva asked hesitantly. "But, Albus..."

The headmaster smiled, waving a hand, "Oh that is how it generally works out, Minerva... in fact, that is how the hat will make its choice, barring any other information. In this case, I feel that Alexander is jarringly lacking in the ambition that Salazar held in high regard. That lack, in Hufflepuff, would lead him to fall into mediocrity... As we've seen tonight, I do not believe that he is fated for that. Slytherin will challenge him, force him to grow. It should be a fascinating process to observe."

Minerva huffed, "If he needs challenge, I have no doubt my Gryff's could provide it."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Albus shrugged, "In either case, the point is moot. Alexander shows no interest in challenging his placement, and I don't see Severus gnashing his teeth at the situation."

The two women looked at Snape, who merely shrugged. "The boy is no worse, nor any better, than most of my students. I see no reason to cause a scandal over some insignificant child."

Minerva began to stiffen, words of censure coming to her lips, but Albus smoothly cut her off.

"Indeed, well then, any other business?"

* * *

Severus Snape paused at the face of the blank wall that led to the Slytherin Common Room, considering what he had learned so far. Potter was, as expected, a foolish Gryffindor with delusions of adequacy. His fame and, as much as Snape hated to admit it, the charm he'd inherited from his father, had already led him to gather together his own circle of delinquents.

Granger and Weasley certainly seemed to fill the role of Lupin and Black, and Potter was quite obviously his father's son.

For the moment, however, there was his own little delinquent to manage. Severus glared at the wall and it slid open without him saying a word, leading the professor to smirk in satisfaction as he stepped inside.

Harris was sitting by the fire, and Severus took a few seconds to observe the boy.

As expected, he was alone. He hadn't slid into any of the known cliques within Slytherin, and as far as Snape could ascertain, his own semi-close friend was Fillius' stray raven, the Addams scion. The boy was petting a *puppy* of all things, which Snape found utterly disgusting until he realized that it must be the boy's familiar.

Odd that, the school notes clearly suggested cats, rats, or toads. Severus scowled as he approached, "Harris."

"Sir?" Xander Harris said, head turning calmly to look at him.

Snape snorted, realizing that the boy had been waiting to be approached. "Who taught you to cast a stunner?"

"Hermione, Sir."

"Granger? I wasn't aware that you two knew each other." Snape frowned.

"We don't, Sir. She showed me while the Troll was attacking us."

Snape stared at the boy, schooling his face to an inscrutable glare. Try as he might he couldn't even fabricate any evidence of falsehood in the boy's expression, and that was mind boggling. First that Granger knew how to cast a Stunner, though he supposed that he shouldn't be so surprised that the little know it all had read that far ahead. However the fact that she was able to *teach* it in the midst of a life or death situation, and that this boy had been able to LEARN it.

"Show me." Snape growled.

"Sir?"

"Is there something wrong with your ears," Snape gestured, "Cast at the wall."

"Yes Sir." Harris said, swallowing as he drew his wand.

Snape watched impassively as the boy mumbled to himself, obviously trying to psyche himself up for the task. Finally he slashed his wand, with the distinctive twist of a Stupefy and snapped out the incantation. Snape merely raised an eyebrow as his wand glowed for a moment, spat a few sparkles, then fizzled out.

"That was hardly a stunner, boy."

Harris flushed, but nodded and tried again, to much the same effect.

Snape was almost ready to tell the boy off for wasting his time when Draco Malfoy called out from across the room.

"Having a little problem, Harris!? I hear that happens to a lot of you barbarians from America!"

Snape shot a glare over his shoulder, annoyed at Malfoy for interrupting his time, and didn't notice Harris' face screw up in a flash of anger.

"Stupefy!"

Snape snapped around in time to see a bright stunner bolt flash across the room and slam into one of the Slytherin drapes and burst the tapestry into flames. He watched it for a moment, then stepped forward with his own wand raised.

"Aquamenti!" Snape called, hosing the fire down.

Silence reigned as he walked over to the wall and idly ran his finger along the scorched surface of the stone wall.

"Impressive power for a first year, Mr. Harris," Snape said calmly, turning back to the boy. He sheathed his wand and withdrew a book from his robes, handing it to Xander. "This is a reference of mystical beasts, their uses and weaknesses, and common spells used to contain, or combat them. The section on Mountain Trolls begins on page eighty two."

"Thank you, Sir."

"One last thing," Snape said, formulating a question he'd wanted to ask all night.

"Sir?"

"Why did you stop those twits from lying to cover for each other?" Snape asked, curious, "Whatever they said didn't include you."

Xander looked at him, then shrugged, "Always tell the truth, Sir. Lying is wrong."

Snape heard a snicker from behind him, and tilted his head slightly. "Is that so?"

"Yes Sir."

Severus had the distinct impression that the boy was serious, but there was something else there too. Snape frowned, leaning in and speaking quietly. "I don't mind telling you, that's an odd statement from a Slytherin, assuming you mean it..."

Xander just smiled slightly. "Lying is stupid, sir, unless you have a damned good reason. We didn't, so I wouldn't."

"And if you have a good reason?" Snape asked seriously.

"Well then, Sir, I suppose having a reputation for being honest would help me out then, wouldn't it?"

Snape snorted, "It would indeed. Good Night, Mr. Harris. Try not to get involved in anymore Gryffindor foolishness, it's beneath a Slytherin."

Snape's robes billowed out as he turned and strode from the room.

'Courage and Loyalty be damned, the boy may be lacking ambition, but he knows the meaning of the word cunning if nothing else.'

* * *

The next day Wednesday Addams found Xander sitting alone, looking out over the lake. She quietly sat down beside him and they both stared for a while before either spoke.

"You know about Mountain trolls?" Xander asked finally.

She nodded, "We don't have many in America, but there are three who are Addamses."

That brought him up short, and he turned to stare at her, "Really?"

"Oh yes. Lurg is a great uncle, I think... maybe three times removed?" She shrugged, "He's very nice."

"The one yesterday wasn't too nice."

"Trolls are easy to anger, and don't usually like humans." Wednesday said calmly, "I imagine that he was very put out to find himself in a human castle."

Xander blinked, "I thought he broke in?"

"Oh no," She shook her head, "Trolls don't like human buildings. They like their mountainsides, with natural magics reverberating around them."

Xander frowned, "That's not in the book..."

"Which book?" She asked, glancing over. When she saw it she grimaced, one of the few genuine emotions Xander had ever seen her make, "Oh. THAT book."

"You know it?"

She nodded, "it's a hunter's book, Alexander. It details how to kill and capture mystical people."

Xander shook his head, "people? There are no people in here... just a lot of weird animals."

She rolled her eyes, "really. Didn't I tell you about Uncle Lurg? You want to tell him that he's an animal to his face?"

It was Xander's turn to grimace, "Pass."

"I thought you might." Wednesday said with a hint of satisfaction. "The book is accurate, as far as the facts go, just try not to listen to the opinions."

Xander nodded, "I'll try."

"Good. Now, are you alright?"

"Yeah. It was scary as hell, but we survived."

The Addams scion nodded, "Good. Now then... I need your help."

"Oh? With what?"

"I want to know who forced that poor troll into the castle."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After Halloween the school quickly returned to what passed for normal in an ancient haunted castle entirely populated by pubescent witches and wizards, ghosts and, as near as Xander could tell, totally insane adult witches and wizards.

Of course he was basing that conclusion on the Headmaster, the Defense teacher, and his own head of house.

Of the three, Snape appeared to be the least nutty, but Xander suspected that was only cause he was younger than Dumbledore and more disciplined than Quirrell. He obviously had a hate on for Harry, though it was only marginally worse than he appeared to hold for anyone dressed in Gryff colors, and there was no way that was healthy.

No, given a few more years Xander was pretty sure Snape would be at least as insane as the Headmaster seemed to be... if not quite as senile.

The big Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match came and went, with the Gryffs taking the game when Harry damn near swallowed the 'snitch'. His housemates were in an uproar, so Xander was frankly glad that he and Wednesday were working on the Troll Project.

Those studies brought him into the library more often than he'd like, but there seemed to be little he could do about that.

'Honestly, who wants to hang around a dusty old library?' Xander thought not for the first time as he made his way in and nodded politely to Madam Pince.

The Librarian nodded back and Xander found his regular table, cram session already in progress.

"Honestly," Hermione sighed in what was now a familiar sound. "I'm telling you there's no such thing, I've read the reference material front to back. Trolls simply can't interbreed with most magical species."

Wednesday merely raised a single eyebrow, eyeing the bushy haired Gryff with what was... for her... a tolerant look. "Really?"

Xander snorted, shaking his head.

This sort of thing had become quite normal in his life, and for the life of him he couldn't decide if it felt like good old Sunnydale, or a nightmare version of his home town. Sure, back home Willow would be constantly correcting everything people said, but here there was someone constantly standing ready to not only contradict her, but willing and quite able to prove her wrong.

Sometimes it was funny, most times it drove Xander back to the Slytherin bunks where he could relax by listening to Draco whine about Harry.

"Yes, really, it says so right in The Great Book of Magical Beasts."

"Beasts?"

Hoo Boy. Xander grimaced, knowing that wasn't going to go over well.

"So you always trust the word of a bigoted fool who doesn't bother to research his data over the word of someone with first-hand knowledge?"

The words were delivered calmly, of course, Wednesday wasn't the type to yell after all, but there was no mistaking the cool steel in her tone. Not if you knew her, as both Xander and Hermione did by now.

The Gryff hesitated, stuttering slightly as she tried to parse her arguments.

"W... well, I... I mean, it's in the book and..."

"Hey, Herms," Xander started, smirking uncaringly under the glare the girl gave him for the nickname, "You do know that not all books tell the truth, right?"

"B... but it's a TEXT BOOK!" She protested.

Xander paused, then shrugged and looked at Wednesday, "Well she has a point there. You'd think someone would have checked to make sure they're teaching the truth."

"You would, wouldn't you?" Wednesday replied dryly.

"Hey, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that Herms has good cause to believe her source. It's not like it's some random book pulled out of a store. It's in the library at our school as a *reference* material."

Wednesday seemed to consider that for a moment, then inclined her head just slightly. "I concede that her ignorance is not wholly her fault."

Oi. Xander grimaced rubbing his forehead as Hermione huffed up and started ranting about calling people that most insulting of words, ignorant. Playing peacemaker was such a pain sometimes.

* * *

"Hey! Harris!"

Xander paused, glancing back as Draco sauntered in his direction, the two ape like bookends following along behind him.

'This I do not need.'

Aloud, however, Xander merely nodded. "Hey, Malfoy. What's up?"

The blond boy frowned, then looked up as if he actually expected to find something above him, causing Xander to suppress the urge to either roll his eyes or tweak the other boy's nose while it was stuck in the air.

"What on Earth are you talking about, Harris? There's nothing up there."

Xander shook his head. "What do you *want*, Draco?"

"I understand you're hanging around with that mudblood of Potter's, what game are you playing, Harris?"

"Gee, why would I hang around in the library with a Raven Claw and a Gryffindor who between them probably account for more brainpower than the rest of our year combined?"

The sarcasm was apparently lost on the blond.

"That's what I'm asking you, Harris. What's your game?"

"We're studying, Malfoy." Xander said slowly and clearly, in a tone that would get the crap kicked out of him in Sunnydale. "You know, with books and stuff?"

Apparently the wizarding world, while it may have discovered sarcasm in the last couple years, had missed out entirely on condescension in the form of speaking as if to a four year old.

"Why would you do that?" Draco blinked.

Xander had just about had enough of things by this point. Not merely Draco, but the entirely school as a whole. The whole place stank of a mental ward, and he was finally starting to believe that it *wasn't* some big joke aimed at the 'muggle born and raised'.

He reached forward and rapped the back of two knuckles on Draco's forehead, clucking his tongue in time to the knocks to make a hollow sound echo through the old stone hallway.

"It's a school, Draco. They're the two smartest people I know, around here anyway," Xander shrugged slightly, unwilling to nudge Willow from the top slot out of loyalty as much as anything else. "You know, top marks and stuff? Is any of this ringing any bells?"

"Stop that! How DARE you touch me!" Draco jerked back, slapping Xander's hand and grabbing for his wand. "I should hex you right here!"

"Go ahead."

"W... what?"

"I said go ahead," Xander replied.

Draco hesitated, looking around as he sensed a trap. "What are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing at anything. You think I've never taken a beating before?" Xander asked, fists clenched to keep his hands from shaking. He could feel his heart pounding, like it always did when he found himself face to face with a bully.

He couldn't win this, not as a fight, and he knew it. But there were two things that tended to set a Bully back on his heels. First, having their target reverse the tables. That usually worked best, but Xander knew he couldn't take the two blockheads, even if he could out hex Draco, which was frankly unlikely. The Second option was a target that simply didn't bother fighting back.

That one always messed with them.

Oh, it wasn't enough to just submit to a beating. That was what they thrived on. No, you had to take the beating and act that it was hardly worth your time. That was something Xander had learned to do a long time ago, take the pain and make it look like he was bored to tears rather than crying in agony.

That sort of indifference always freaked everyone out.

Draco, however, wasn't having any of it just then. He was falling back from Xander, eyes casting about as his voice rose slightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Harris. We're just going back to the dormitories, stop trying to pick fights."

With that the blond and his bookends turned and hurried off, leaving Xander to ponder the rather odd outcome of the confrontation.

* * *

Christmas was looming quickly, and the Great Hall had been decorated accordingly in a fashion that put anything Xander had ever seen to shame. The floating decorations changed the normally cold feeling of the old castle to something far more festive, and it showed on the entire student body.

Well, mostly.

Some were so stuck in their ways that nothing seemed to impact on them, for good or ill. Xander ducked Malfoy and his goons for that reason, not wanting to put up with the downer they'd bring to the generally cheery mood. Wednesday and Hermione were, for the most part unchanged. Hermione because she rarely seemed to notice that the decorations were there, her nose being perpetually stuck in a book despite the efforts of Harry and Ronald Weasley to shake her out of her self-imposed comas.

That relationship had Xander shaking his head, but he supposed that you couldn't hold saying something stupid against someone. Lord knew, he'd said some bad ones in his time and, if he were being honest with himself, would likely do so again. Still, Ron had been more than a little hurtful on Halloween, and it had been malicious, though probably only through his own stupidity rather than through actual intentions.

Outside of Classes, which were going ok as far as he could tell, Xander tended to hang out mostly with Wednesday and Hermione or the other Americans attending. Either or, that is, since neither group could stand the other. Wednesday scared the rest of the American kids, her name alone seemed to spook them more than when someone said 'Voldemort' to one of the Brits. He had to ask her what she'd done to them sometime, but honestly Xander didn't think he wanted to know.

Hermione, well she had a reputation of a know it all, and few of the American kids wanted anything to do with someone who was constantly correcting everything they said. Actually, few of the British kids wanted anything to do with someone like that either, come to think of it. Xander sighed, it had taken him years to gently persuade Willow that he didn't need to be corrected for every little thing he said wrong, just the important stuff. The definition of 'important' was something he and Wills were still debating, but that was another story.

Herms, however, had a lot more confidence in herself than Wills ever did, and as such didn't mind correcting the entire school if she thought they had it coming.

Xander was musing about that when a shout startled him as he walked toward the Great Hall for lunch.

"Wait! Hang on, stop!"

He twisted, but continued moving in the direction he had been and was blown across the hall when a light flashed in his face and something slapped across his body like the hand of God. He connected with the wall on the far side and saw stars before the world began to dim.

In the distance he could see two figures run up.

"Oh dear, Brother of mine, I believe," One began speaking.

"That we have most certainly made an error," The other continued.

"In judgement." The first finished, then frowned, "Not our first, I must admit."

"Certainly not," The other said cheerily, before looking down at Xander. "Is the ickle firstie alright?"

Xander groaned, and rolled off the floor to his hands and knees before starting the long climb back to his feet. "What hit me?"

The duo that Xander now recognized as the infamous bane of Slytherin's everywhere, the Weasely Twins, glanced at each other, then down at Xander and winced.

"Ah, well you see," The first began.

"We were setting up a little harmless prank..."

"Harmless!" Xander snapped, then winced and held his head. "Oh man, what a bump. What did I do to deserve your attentions anyway?"

"Actually, we were lying in wait for Flint." The first admitted.

The second nodded, "Marcus has some payback coming for the actions of his team in the last Slytherin/Gryffindor match."

Xander closed his eyes, still holding his head. "And throwing him across the hallway is your idea of payback?"

"Umm... well, not exactly."

"That is to say, not entirely."

Xander looked at them, and the both seemed to blush, which caused him to pale. "What did you do!?"

"HARRIS!"

The Weasley Twins bolted at the sound of Snape's voice, leaving Xander standing there in confusion as his head of house stormed up.

"Explain yourself, Boy."

"Excuse me?"

"Your robes!"

Xander looked down and winced, this time not because of his head but because of his clothing. Instead of the Green and Silver of Slytherin, he found himself wearing Red and Gold with the words 'Slytherin Cheaters Never Prosper' animatedly running around them. He gritted his teeth and just thanked God that he hadn't continued into the Great Hall like this.

"Sorry Sir, I seem to have run into some trouble."

"That much is obvious," Snape said, moving to block Xander from the hall as he drew his wand. "Who did this? I thought I saw the Weasley twins, it was them, correct?"

Now, to Xander's mind, telling the truth here wasn't even remotely an option.

"Sorry, Sir, I don't know." he lied through his teeth.

Snape eyed him closely, then snorted, "Just tell me, and I'll handle it."

"Can't tell you what I don't know, Sir." Xander replied stoically. "I have no idea who did this."

He could tell that Snape didn't believe him, but didn't care. This wasn't a matter for the adults in his opinion. You didn't go running to adults for every little problem, it just wasn't done. The only question was how to handle the twins.

Xander was pondering that while Professor Snape tried ending the charms on his robes, only to find that they had been trapped with various trigger spells that resulted in more and more rude insults appearing as fast as the Professor could eliminate them.

Finally he exploded, "Fine! Back to the dorms and change then, and five points from Slytherin for being out of your house colors!"

Xander nodded and retreated, deciding not to push the man any further as he seemed to be spectacularly frustrated both by the prank itself, his inability to disenchant it, and the fact that Xander refused to name the twin Gryffs.

Down the hall, Xander turned to head down to the dungeons, ignoring the snickering from those who were watching him walk by. Twin hisses caused him to pause just out of sight of those students who had been witness to his humiliation and glance to one side to see the twins hiding in an alcove and staring at him.

"What do you twits want?" He snarled, seriously unhappy with the situation.

"Oi! Listen to the ickle firstie," the first smirked.

"They grow up so fast," the second sniffed.

"Or they think they do, at any rate."

"True, oh brother of mine, true."

Xander sighed, "What do you want?"

The twins looked at each other, then back at him.

"We want to know," The first said.

"Why you didn't tell Snape it was us?" the second finished.

Xander rolled his eyes, "What do I look like?"

"Well right now, you look rather like a suicidal Gryffindor..."

"About to go into Slytherin territory in robes even we wouldn't risk."

Xander scowled at the duo, and they held up their hands as they smirked.

"Buy normally you look like an ickle firstie snake,"

"True, brother of mine," The second frowned, "but a snake would have gleefully let Snape string us up by our entrails."

"Excellent point, dear brother, so what have we here?"

Xander smirked back at them, "Sorry, you got me mixed up with Draco. That's not a Slytherin trait, that's a spoiled rich kid trait."

"Is that so?" Twin One asked.

"And what, pray tell," Twin Two began.

"Are Slytherin traits in your opinion?"

Xander grinned openly at the duo, making them drop their own smirks and hesitate slightly.

"Payback." he said, then simply turned and walked away.

Fred Weasely watched him go, then turned to his brother George, "Hmmm brother of mine, it would seem that the snakes have themselves an interesting new member."

"Oh I must agree, brother dearest." George nodded in agreement. "What do you think?"

"The same think you do."

"Then it's agreed, we watch this one."

* * *

Xander threw the charmed robes into a pile in the corner of his room, annoyed at the twins, though not so much as he supposed he might be. They hadn't been aiming at him, after all, and Flint was a prick.

Still, he couldn't just let that go without an answer. Oh no.

Xander smiled slowly, no ignoring Bullies was one thing. Being the butt of jokes, however, was something else. The only problem was that he didn't have a CLUE how to pull off anything like the twins had just done to him.

But then hey, what good was it to hang out with geniuses if you couldn't pick their brains a little?

"I bet Wednesday will have some really... interesting thoughts." He grinned to himself as he pulled out another set of robes. His stomach growled, and he hurriedly threw them on and bolted back for the Great Hall.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Wednesday Addams looked up when her, well she supposed 'friend' was the best way to describe him, walked into the library. She hadn't seen him at lunch, but had certainly heard the snickering from other students. He didn't look terribly happy as he walked in, which she recognized as being out of character for the young man she'd grown to know.

Apparently Hermione had noticed it as well as the verbose girl immediately spoke when she saw him approach. "Xander? Are you ok?"

He curled up his lips, "Yeah, just dandy. I've got most of my House ready to strangle me."

Hermione blinked, "Whatever for?"

"I lost points."

"How many?" Hermione frowned, "I heard it was only five."

"Yeah, but Professor Snape took them. That basically is the same thing as being called a traitor." Xander scowled, slumping into the chair.

"What? But that's insane!"

"No, it's the way Slytherin works," Wednesday corrected mildly.

Hermione growled, "That makes me so mad! That's not how it's supposed to work!"

"Imagine that." Xander muttered, looking around, "Hey Herms?"

"How many times must I tell you not to call me that!?"

"Uh... at least another time, I guess." Xander shrugged, "Look, you don't have any real strong attachment to the twins or anything do you?"

Hermione glanced at him askance, "Why are you asking?"

"I should think that is obvious," Wednesday answered for him, "Revenge."

"Bingo."

"Alexander Harris! You could get into trouble, and if you wanted revenge why not just tell Professor Snape?"

"This isn't a matter for the teachers," Xander shrugged, "It's between me and them. It's not like they tried to murder me."

"I hardly see what that has to do with anything," She huffed.

"Hey, I stand on my own, Herms." Xander replied. "Some things you just don't do, and run to the teachers with every little problem is one of them."

"I agree." Wednesday said calmly. "What are you thinking?"

Xander shrugged and frowned, "I don't know yet. I've pulled a few practicals in my life, but nothing on the scale these two manage. They've got years of spell experience on me, and it's pretty obvious that they're no slouches in the imagination department. I don't want to use the old cliché stuff, even if I could figure out a way to pull it off, it's just not that impressive compared to some of the magic stuff they pull."

"True." Wednesday acceded. "They transfigured your robes, I assume?"

Xander nodded, "And charmed them , using some kind of trip wire trigger I think."

"Really? That's advanced runic magic," Hermione broke in, "I don't think they've learned anything like that in class yet."

"So they're working ahead of the grade too, huh?" Xander slumped a little. "Great."

He glanced behind him at the books, "Hey, I wonder if there's anything in here on practical jokes?"

"Honestly, Xander, of course there isn't. This is a school library," Hermione said as Xander got up and made his way to the shelves. "I told you, there's nothing there."

"I'm just checking, Herms." Xander replied, wandering the bookshelves as the bushy haired girl got up to follow him. "Not even in the P section?"

"Oh honestly, this library is sectioned by category, not alphabetically." Hermione rolled her eyes, "It's a magical version of the Dewey Decimal System."

Xander blinked, then shook his head as he checked the titles and sighed, "So I'm guessing there's no practical jokes section then, huh?"

"No, there most certainly is NOT."

He nodded, "Figures."

Xander made his way back toward Hermione, only to freeze as one of the books literally jumped out and hit him on the head. "OW!"

"Xander! Are you ok?" Hermione rushed forward, wincing as Madame Pince made herself known behind them with a harsh 'shhh'.

"I'm fine. I just got attacked by a book," Xander scowled at the blank tome that had clobbered him. "Weird. There's no title."

"No title?" Hermione took it from him, "Let me see."

"Hey!"

She ignored him, frowning as she flipped it open, "it's empty."

Xander took it back, glaring at her, "Empty."

"Yes, empty, Mr. Grabby." She scowled at him.

"Look who's talking." Xander shook his head, then he frowned, "What are you talking about, it's not empty."

He had opened it to the inside cover page and was quickly enthralled to see elegant text appearing in cursive script.

The Scholastic Grimoire of...

Xander blinked when an animated image of a big black dog ran out into the page and started barking at the words, scattering the letters across the page, then chased them away.

"Xander, what?"

"Shhh..." Xander said absently, not looking up as he walked back to the table he shared with Hermione and Wednesday.

The dog had finished chasing the words away, then paused and seemed to *grin* at Xander before jumping up and grabbing something out of the page with teeth and pulling down. Like a shade being drawn a new title page appeared before Xander's eyes.

The Maleficium Maraudette.

Xander blinked.

The words 'Sirius Black!' appeared in big black block letters, an image of a witch running out onto the page with wand drawn, casting hexes at the dog as she ran him off, a text bubble appearing above her as she seemed to scream at the dog, 'Stay out of our journal you mangy mutt!'.

"This is like watching a bugs bunny cartoon," Xander grinned.

Hermione, who was now looking over his shoulder, frowned, "I've heard that name somewhere before."

Xander didn't respond as the witch turned to him and sighed, shaking her head before turning to wave her wand around. The dog induced title caught fire and burned away, to be replaced by the original title, this time in it's compete form.

The Scholastic Grimoire of Evans, Prewitt, and Black.

Then, below that, in smaller letters new words appeared and caused Xander to catch his breath.

A guide to the Art of defensive pranking, or Marauding the Marauders.

"Who do you suppose they are?" Hermione asked from beside him.

"I don't know," Xander admitted, "I'm pretty curious about why the book attacked me, though."

Wednesday looked up, head tilted as she seemed to pay attention to them again. "You were attacked by a book?"

"Look!" Hermione hissed, pointing to the book.

The page had turned on it's own, and Xander began to read as words appeared.

If you have found this book, then you are in need of it's contents. Within you will find all our class notes from first year to NEWTS...

Xander winced as Hermione gasped in his ear.

However, having found and being able to read this book, it is likely the pages on defensive pranking that are of most value to you. Having attended school for seven years with those most annoying of pranksters, the Marauders, and with full knowledge that they have left many of their own artifacts behind as they too finished their Hogwarts education, we of The Coven have decided to seed this book for those who may yet suffer under the tyranny of a Marauder's Rule.

Xander blinked, looking at Hermione and then over at Wednesday. "I'm just going to go on record now as saying that, while cool, Magic is pretty creepy sometimes."

Wednesday just shrugged, but Hermione nodded.

"May I?" Hermione asked this time, so Xander nodded and handed the book to her.

She accepted it, and began to pour over it, only to gasp a second later.

"What?"

"It's blank!"

Xander paled, he needed that book, and quickly took it back. He frowned, noting the writing reappearing before his eyes.

For security purposes this book may only be read when being held by the person whose need activated the charms. Be warned, use the knowledge within with great care. Any violation of the tenants of The Coven will result in the rescinding of your right to use this tome and its immediate return to its hiding place in the library.

"Fascinating." Wednesday said, for the first time taking an active interest in the happenings.

"That's not right." Hermione huffed, crossing her arms as she slumped in the chair. "Books are for everyone."

"Not this one, apparently." Xander said, flipping the pages.

"Indeed. The charms work is extremely advanced," Wednesday added, "In fact, I believe that some of them are approaching Master's level."

Hermione reluctantly nodded in agreement, "She's right. Whoever these people are, they're really good at spells."

"Cool." Xander breathed, then grinned, "So... anyone up for a round of torture the twins?"

"I'm in." Wednesday responded instantly, much to Hermione's horror.

Said horror only grew more pronounced as the dark child went on with a gleeful gleam in her eyes, "In fact, I have an idea for you already."

"Oh yeah?" Xander leaned forward, grinning wide.

His grin dropped a few moments later, and his expression slowly morphed to match Hermione's as Wednesday laid out her idea. He and Hermione looked at each other, naked fear warring with awe as they both shuddered.

"Ah... maybe later," Xander said after a long moment, "I don't think they deserve that just yet."

"Pity." Wednesday said with a shrug, then turned back to her book.

* * *

The book made for pretty cool reading, in Xander's opinion. The three Witches who wrote it had apparently been scarily smart, but they each had their own personality that the passages they wrote were simply steeped in.

Evans, who seemed to be the ringleader of the Coven, was a 'Muggle-born' witch whose skill in charms and potions was obvious even to Xander's limited experience. Of course it helped that he was only permitted to read the sections she had revised specifically for first year students. She had been the one to enspell the Grimoire, though apparently this Sirius fellow had somehow managed to sneak in some handy work of his own during the process as every now and then a big black dog would show up and trash one of the lesson plans, apparently just for the hell of it.

Prewitt, the second member of the Coven, was a mixed blood student apparently, or at least that's what Xander through from the reading. She seemed to come from a pure blood family, but often commented on how she didn't feel fully a part of the large extended family the bloodline included. Her lesson plans and notes focused more on transfiguration and what she called pre-arithmancy, which Xander was relieved to note was simple arithmantic with a primer on mystical number theory.

Black, now there was a lady who had issues in Xander's opinion. He could only assume that she was related to this Sirius fellow somehow, but she seemed to hold an aloof disdain for the man whenever his influence made itself known. Her specialties were Curses, Hexes, and Jinxes, along with an enormous section on Pure Blood traditions and culture, written with an aim toward educating the 'unfortunate and ignorant victims of muggle society'. Xander thought she was mostly joking when she wrote stuff like that, since her two friends were obviously not part of the traditions she was espousing, but it was hard to tell because Black had the most reserved sense of humor of the three.

What Xander found really interesting, however, was the houses each belonged to.

That was right. Houses.

Evans was a Griff, Prewitt a Puff, and Black was Slytherin.

Now these three made sense.

* * *

The Christmas break was rapidly approaching, and Xander would be relieved as hell when it finally arrived. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, of course, but he just wanted some time away from his own House.

He was, pretty much, officially persona non grata with the Snakes and had been since his encounter with the twins and his subsequent refusal to give them up to Snape. So far as he knew he was the ONLY Slytherin to have lost points from their Head of house, and as far as the rest were concerned that meant he had committed that most heinous of crimes... disloyalty to the house.

Since the rest of the school had no interest in getting to know a snake, that left Xander with almost all his free time in the company of Wednesday or Hermione, or of course the few other American students who held very little stock in the house systems.

Still, that meant that the only fun Xander seemed to have was in the library, studying.

It was enough to make him cry.

* * *

"What are you two doing for the holidays?"

Xander frowned at the question, not knowing the answer really. "I don't know. I guess I might go home, but Cali is a long way off."

"By portkey it's only a few seconds," Hermione informed him, her tone taking on that superior sound it unfortunately tended to.

"Yeah," Xander allowed, "But international portkeys are pretty expensive, and I don't know if my parents can afford it."

"Salem Academy is covering those." Wednesday entered the conversation, her eyes piercing into Xander as she looked up from her book.

Xander grimaced, looking down as he pretended to read from the Grimoire he had taken to carrying around with him. "Yeah... well."

"Tell us."

The order in Wednesday's voice wasn't something Xander would ever have missed, even though this girl's version of Willow's 'Resolve Face' had little difference from her 'normal face'. He sighed, "I don't much like the holidays with my folks."

The two just stared at him and Xander sighed again.

"Look, I live my mom and dad, ok, but they aren't the best company around the holidays. They tend to... fight. A lot." He told them, surprised by his own calm tone and candor. "I try not to be around them much then."

Hermione looked horrified, but Wednesday merely nodded in acceptance of the facts.

"That's horrible!"

"Herms, it's ok," Xander told her with a smile, "I'll be fine."

"Of course you will be," Wednesday said, "You'll be coming home with me for the holidays."

"What!?"

"What?"

Wednesday wasn't one to repeat herself, however, and she merely returned to her reading as Xander and Hermione exchanged confused glances. Xander shook his head, deciding that they'd talk about it later and moved to change the subject.

"So, what are you working on, Herms?"

Hermione stared at him for a moment, then looked over at the dark Ravenclaw, then back at Xander. Finally she shook herself and glanced down at her own stack of books.

"Some personal research," She admitted. "I'm trying to find some information on Nicholas Flamel."

"Oh? Who's he?" Xander asked, glancing over.

"I'm not certain, that's part of the problem." Hermione admitted.

"He's an Alchemist." Wednesday said, not looking up. "A Master Alchemist, to be specific."

They both glanced over at her, Hermione's jaw dropping open. "How'd you know that?"

"I've read some of his published works," Wednesday shrugged, looking up again.

"I haven't found anything in any of the lists!" Hermione blurted, then flinched as she looked around for Madame Pince.

Wednesday gazed at her evenly, "I'm not surprised. They prune those lists after a century and a half. Flamel's work was all published over two hundred years ago."

Hermione looked disappointed, which piqued Xander's curiosity. "Oh, I didn't know he was dead."

"He's not."

Now Xander shifted his attention completely over to Wednesday, as did Hermione.

"What? But he must be, to have published masters work over two hundred years ago..." She trailed off, obviously at sea.

"Flamel is the creator of the Philosophers Stone," Wednesday replied calmly, though Xander noticed a faint look of distaste appear on her face.

That seemed to click something in Hermione, however, as her eyes lit right up.

"Of course! That explains everything!" She said, as if it really did, "Wednesday, I could kiss you!"

The dark child merely looked at her evenly, "You will not."

Hermione apparently didn't notice, however, as she threw all her books into her bag and then grabbed Wednesday up in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Then she grabbed her bag and bolted from the library.

"Well..." Xander grinned, highly amused.

"If you value your life and sanity, you will NOT repeat any of that to another soul." Wednesday informed him in a chilly tone.

Xander threw up his hands, "What? Me?"

She glared at him for a moment, then turned back to her books.

He chuckled, then went back to reading his own.

* * *

The last couple weeks to Christmas passed quickly, and Xander found himself feeling a little off as everyone prepared to make the most of their holidays. He'd forgotten about Wednesday's declaration, right up until the day the students were leaving for their vacations and the Addamses appeared in the Great Hall during lunch.

"Wednesday, love, how have you been?" Morticia asked, sweeping across the floor in her graceful, almost motionless step.

"I've been fine, mother."

"And have you made many friends?"

Xander shot a glare at the Ravenclaw table as several snorted derisively. He made careful note who, for future reference.

As he was finishing that, he was surprised to be greeted by Mr. Addams.

"Ah, Alexander old bean, how are things?"

"They're fine, Sir."

"Tsk, none of that, call me Gomez." Gomez grinned, "I understand you're coming with us for the holidays?"

Xander blinked, "I am?"

"Excellent! We've procured a fabulous home on the Continent just for the occasion," Gomez said enthusiastically, ignoring or missing the question in Xander's voice.

"Uh..."

"You'll love it, I'm sure. It's a wonderfully gloomy old castle in the Romanian hills," Gomez went on, "fantastic history there, I tell you. Bloodletting rituals, sacrificial ceremonies, massacres... all the holiday festivities."

Xander just stared for a moment as several of the Slytherins around him paled or simply looked confused. "Uh, Sir?"

"Now, now, Alexander, what did I tell you?"

"Uh... Gomez?"

"Excellent, now what is it?"

"I'm going to spend the holidays with you?" Xander asked, uncertainly.

"Certainly, Wednesday told us all about it. We've arranged everything, contacted your parents and all that," Gomez waved his hand airily.

"Indeed they have."

Xander turned to see Headmaster Dumbledore approach, smiling serenely. "Really sir?"

The old man nodded, "Everything has been signed off on, I thought you knew?"

"Uh... I guess I did, but I didn't think she was serious." Xander admitted.

"Ah," Dumbledore smiled a bit more, eyes dancing merrily. "Apparently she was indeed. Why don't you go get your things so you don't hold up the Addamses."

Xander nodded, then ran off, not noticing the paleness of the professors seated at the head table, or the look of real fear in the eyes of one Severus Snape.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The portkey to Romania left Xander in the dirt once again, dizzy as hell and trying to figure out why he couldn't keep his balance through a simple transport.

"Good lord, lad, what are you doing on the ground?" Gomez asked, leaning over slightly.

"He likes it down there." Wednesday said blankly before stepping over Xander to look at the castle.

"Really? How peculiar." Gomez shrugged, writing it off as a rather strange eccentricity, and moving on.

Xander sighed, closing his eyes and counting to three quickly before climbing to his feet.

He rose up, looking around, and swallowed hard as he turned rather pale. He supposed that he shouldn't be surprised, given what he knew of Wednesday's proclivities, but the castle was... well, creepy was simple the only way to say it. It rose up from bare stone, so black it seemed made of obsidian, and the spires were actually covered in dark clouds.

It simply had to be haunted, though that wasn't much of a deterrence any more now that he thought of it.

"Gomez! About time you got here!"

"Fester, dear boy, how is the place?"

"Fantastic!" The bald man said, grinning wide enough to split his face. "Gram-mama already setup the kitchen and is brewing the stew now."

"Ah, most excellent. Oh, I am forgetting my manners," Gomez clapped Fester on the back and turned around, "This strapping young lad is Alexander Harris, a school chum of Wednesday's."

Xander froze as the bald man grinned at him, the smile seriously freaky, and then walked over.

"Any friend of Wednesday's is a friend of mine, Alexander," The man said, clapping an arm around Xander's shoulders as he turned back to the castle. "Come on, come on, we have things to do, a holiday to plan. Say, do you like explosives?"

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy frowned slightly as she glanced at her bookshelf.

'Odd. That looks like...' She trailed off, reaching for the slightly glowing book and drawing it out.

Her copy of the old school grimoire had been activated. The Malfoy matriarch raised an eyebrow and flipped it open, scowling as the little fight between the title page and Sirius' additions played out. Honestly, Sirius had been such a child.

She settled down in the chair of her study and flipped the book open to the most recently accessed pages, smiling slightly as she noted the first year spells that had been displayed. 'Someone's looking for a little pranking payback. Against who, I wonder?'

She glanced over the notes and lessons carefully, noting that some of them were obsolete, and noted in the newer techniques. A sad feeling came over her as she did so, knowing that she was the only person currently alive who would, or could, do what she was doing. Poor Lily and Alice...

She forced away the raw feeling in her gut, knowing that it would be detrimental to her lifestyle, and perhaps life, to let it continue. That said, she found herself smiling again as she reviewed the notes and lesson answers the current owner of the school's copy of the grimoire had filled in.

'Not bad, whoever you are,' she thought, correcting the answers and making suggestions.

She didn't know who held the book, but they had a decent mind for a first year. Not brilliant, but imaginative and creative both, which would serve them well. It was beyond hope that it had been Draco who had inherited the book, unfortunately, as she knew that her son for all his talents was neither imaginative nor creative. He was a pale copy of his father, a fact that Narcissa hated but could see no way around.

'Hmmm... Draco will be home soon, I wonder how his school year has gone?' She thought to herself, closing the book but leaving it on her desk.

It was nice to have a connection to her old life again, even if it was a tenuous link to the past through an unknown member of the present.

* * *

The first meal of the holidays could have gone better.

He could have been able to eat it, for one thing.

Xander had sat down at the table as the stew was served, the eerie steam flowing from the bowls like some dry ice concoction on a bad TV series. He swallowed as a bowl was set in front of him, and dipped a spoon in, then nearly jumped out of his skin as something grabbed the spoon and yanked it out of his hand.

"Whoa!"

"Down! Down!" The old woman snarled, whipping a knife out of nowhere and stabbing it into his bowl. After a moment she stopped, sniffed the air lightly, and nodded. "Perfect."

"Indeed it is, Gram-mama!" Gomez grinned, smacking his lips. "You've outdone yourself again!"

Xander stared at his bowl with wide eyes, 'This was outdoing herself? What the hell does she usually make?'

He didn't say anything aloud, though, knowing from his time at Willow's that the guest should always be polite, and vice versa. That said, he didn't see any way out of a little rudeness here. There was no WAY he was eating something that had to be fought with while at the dinner table.

Unfortunately it didn't take long for someone to notice his lack of enthusiasm for the meal.

"Something wrong, Xander?' Fester asked, having taken a bit of a shine to the quiet young man who, like almost all young men, loved anything that went boom.

"Uh..." Xander trailed off, finding himself in a serious jam.

Should he keep quiet and look for something else to eat later? He wasn't sure how far they were from town, but if the castle was rented out to wizarding folk he might be able to find a Floo link, and hopefully work out how to use it. Buy that would really suck for the entire holidays, to say the least, since he had a sinking feeling that this was normal food for Wednesday's family.

A strange thought popped into his head then, and he looked over at Wednesday with wide eyes.

"How do you eat at school?"

Xander's eyes widened even more as everyone turned to look at him, and he wished he had his mouth stapled shut.

"Uh, I mean, if this is the kind of food you're used to then school food must be kinda weird, right?" Xander found himself babbling, "Cause I find this weird, I mean I don't eat food that fights back and if you do than the school feasts have to be strange cause they're all normal food..."

Xander paled, "I mean normal for us, not that this isn't normal... I... that is, ok I'm shutting up now."

Morticia and Gomez glanced at each other blankly, then Eudora Addams pouted.

"You don't like my cooking? But you haven't tried it."

"I... I..." Xander swallowed, then went for broke with the truth. "I don't think I can."

"Why ever not?" Gomez blurted, shocked.

Morticia sighed, "Gomez, love, it's poor conditioning."

"What? Absurd, who would condition a young lad to not eat good food!?"

Morticia smiled, caressing her husband's cheek. "Oh, mon coeur, you are so naive, but I love you for it."

"Tish! That's French!"

"Later, darling." Mortisha calmly dodged his attentions, then turned back to Xander. "We will see what we can do about meals, Alexander. I understand that something completely new is not easy to adjust to."

"Uh, thank you Ma'am."

She smiled briefly at him, then made a point of returning to her meal. Slowly the rest of the family followed suit.

Pugsley Addams shoveled food in for a few moments, then nudged his sister. "Your friend is weird."

She shot him a dark glance, but the one he received from his mother was far darker, and the chubby young boy paled and quickly ducked his head again as he began to eat furiously to hide from his mother's glare.

The uncomfortable silence stretched on for a few minutes, then finally Fester broke it, "So Gomez, did you get your trains set up?"

* * *

Narcissa watched as her son stepped off the train, feeling an odd combination of pride, chagrin, and shame. It was one she was familiar with, unfortunately.

Her son was in many ways the perfect epitome of a pureblood scion.

Unfortunately, he was also most of the things she had despised in her youth. Arrogant without cause, which was her and Lucius' fault, she knew. He knew what he had to know to navigate the treachery of high society, but his father's money and power had gone to the boy's head. He should know to be cautious, but the protection his family name gave him had given Draco some of the very worst attributes of a pureblooded Gryffindor.

She sighed and smiled wanly as he approached, strutting toward her with confidence she knew he had yet to earn the rights to.

"How was school, Draco?" She asked as she guided him away, eyes sweeping the platform for anything of interest, or any threats of note as he spoke.

There was precious little of interest, but Narcissa spotted three of Lucius' political rivals following them both with their eyes. She surreptitiously laid a hand on her wand and quickly guided Draco clear of the platform. Once they reached the apparition point she tightened her grip on him and with a crack they were gone.

The two appeared at Malfoy Manor instants later, and Draco immediately broke clear of his mother's grip.

"Is father home?"

"I believe he is in his study."

"Thank you, mother." Draco said before running off in that direction.

She sighed as he left, and once more thought about the book on the desk in her own study.

How very far she had come from the young woman who had a part in writing that little piece of magical history. So very far, and yet she felt as if she hadn't taken a single step forward.

Life enjoyed it's cruel jokes almost as much as the Marauders enjoyed theirs it seemed.

Life, however, didn't seem interested in making up for its cruelty. That was something even the Marauders had strove to do, in the end.

* * *

Xander sighed, fairly contended with his meal. They'd had to Floo in for takeout, but at least the food was cooked and didn't give off noxious vapors. He made his way through the old castle, more than a little disturbed by it but also incredibly interested. This was the second castle he'd ever seen, and was as unlike Hogwarts as Hogwarts was unlike his school back home.

The Addams, true to expectations, seemed to like things gloomy and more than a little on the spooky side. Not really Xander's taste, but he'd learned enough to be pretty sure that he was safe here, and so was doing his best not to let it get to him. Morticia and Gomez had made it clear that he had full run of the castle with none of the restrictions he'd come to expect, and that was more than a little liberating, almost a heady feel really.

He had moved from one of the wide halls to a new room when a swishing sound through the air caused him to half turn just in time to see a knife thunk solidly into the door he had just opened.

"Drat!" Fester yelled, "no fair, he opened the door!"

Xander crossed his eyes, looking at the knife, then slowly looked back to where Fester, Pugsley, and Wednesday were standing, more knives in hand.

"Uh..." He trailed off, really having nothing to say beyond that.

"Do close the door, Xander," Wednesday suggested, "We're playing a game."

Xander nodded slowly, and let the door close, only to jump again when he spotted a person trussed up against the wall behind the door, with blades jammed into the wall all around him. The man had wide eyes as he moaned against a gag that had been stuffed into his mouth.

"Move aside, Xander," Pugsley called, "it's my turn."

"Uh..." Xander blinked, looking at the guy who was shaking and screaming and obviously trying to get loose. "Who's the target?"

"Salesman." Wednesday said blandly.

"Oh," Xander said, stepping out of the way.

Another knife swished through the air, thunking into the wall between the guys legs. Xander shuddered, but didn't say anything else as he moved up beside the trio as Wednesday lined up for her shot.

"You're not actually going to hit him, are you?" Xander only half asked.

Truthfully, he already had a feel for Wednesday, and was pretty sure that she wouldn't be part of actually killing the poor bastard. Scaring him to death, followed by a resuscitation, that was possible. After he asked, she merely leveled a look at him that Xander interpreted as her 'of course not, you moron' look.

Xander just nodded, stepping away from her as she drew back and let fly. The blade spun through the air and thunked into the wall only a hairs' breadth from the salesman's head, actually slicing several strands of the man's hair from his skull and letting them float to the ground.

His eyes rolled up into his head, and he slumped in his bonds.

"Oh POO! He fainted. You win again, Wednesday." Fester pouted, tossing his remaining knives aside.

"Nuts." Pugsley grumbled, "I was sure the groin shot would do it."

"You guys do this often?"

"Only with salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses," Fester said cheerfully. "They're the only two groups stupid enough not to take the hint."

"Indeed." Wednesday said in her bland tone, "We use less trying methods for other groups, otherwise we'd never have any visitors... or victims."

Xander walked over, eyeing the knives and their proximity to the body. "You ever miss?"

Fester bridled at the questions, "What? You take us for amateurs!?"

"Wednesday and I have been throwing knives since we were four," Pugsley said proudly, grinning wide. "We hardly ever miss... anymore."

Xander shuddered, but nodded. "What do you do with them now?"

Fester shrugged, "cut him down and leave him in Gomez' study. He'll wake up with a cigar in one hand, bourbon in the other, and a sales contract for everything he's selling."

Xander broke down laughing.

* * *

The Christmas vacation went along in a surprisingly normal manner after that, at least relative to Xander's recent experiences. It was surprising how much he found he could take in stride without totally freaking out now that he'd actually lived in a haunted castle for a few months. Honestly, he found that the Addamses weren't much weirder than, say, Headmaster Dumbledore or any of the other adults he'd recently dealt with.

They had strange ideas, true, but Xander quickly found that they were to not panic. Just take it in stride, because they seemed genuinely friendly and while they enjoyed things most would consider creepy at a minimum, or downright lethal, they never actually endangered themselves or anyone else.

It took him getting blown up by Fester to figure that one out, mind you.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy frowned, genuinely puzzled as she read the notes in the Grimoire. The unknown student had taken it with him on vacation, and there was a rather bizarre change in his responses to the basic quizzes she had setup with Lily for Charms and Defence.

For some reason they had suddenly centered around some particularly violent scenarios, including being caught in the premature detonation of something called... dynamite.

The Lady Malfoy found herself furthering her own education as she researched just what this Dynamite was, and what it's effects were. The answer, to her chagrin, was located in A Wizard's Guide to Muggles.

Dynamite (Noun) - A Muggle contraption used in the place of Reductor Charms, primarily for construction or demolition purposes. Please note, while it may appear to be a slightly over thick wand it is NOT advised to attempt to use it as such. Magical conductance is minimal, however some magics have been known to prematurely detonate a wand of dynamite. Place appropriate shield charms on yourself and any nearby persons before playing with this muggle device. (See Appendix D, Safety Charms for Handling Explosives and Appendix X, Accidental Deaths due to misuse of Muggle Artifacts)

'Dear lord. What on Earth is a first year doing playing with muggle Reductor equivalents?' Narcissa shook her head, wondering if she was dealing with a Muggle-born, or perhaps a half blood? She shrugged it off and decided that it didn't matter. She, Lily, and Alice had their disagreements on the importance of blood, but they had all sworn to treat those who asked for aid from the Coven equally.

She drew out her master copy again and noted the shield charms from the book, copying them down into the answers and suggestions sections. Hopefully the child would at least get the idea that playing with such toys was dangerous until one could cast the appropriate charms.

* * *

"Are your family all wizards?" Xander asked, looking up from his book to where Wednesday was studying some of her own.

Wednesday looked up at him slowly, eyes coolly appraising him in that way she commonly did. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I don't see any wands, but I'm pretty sure that Fester used a basic concussion shield charm on us yesterday right before the dynamite blew up in our faces." Xander replied, twisting his book around to show her the section.

The dark girl leaned forward and examined the section carefully.

"Interesting." She said after a moment, "To answer your question, no. I'm the first Witch, but the definition of wizarding culture, in several generations. Addamses have a great deal of latent magical energy, however."

"I believe that." Xander replied dryly.

She cast him a cool glance, but didn't respond to the comment as she went on, "Addams Matriarchs have long been guiding the family bloodline, and the results are wide ranging. Some wandless magic has become quite common, mostly centering around defensive casting."

"Cool." Xander said, nodding.

"I believe Uncle Fester learned that charm from Great Aunt Milsol," Wednesday went on, "Who was a Witch. She married into the family in 1877 to Great Uncle Quirke. She was something more of a Potions Mistress, though. Gram-mama apprenticed under Milsol, actually."

"Your Gram-mama knows potions?" Xander looked up, interested.

Wednesday nodded, "Of course. Eudora Addams is one of the foremost Mistresses in the field, though she writes most of her articles under her maiden name."

"Oh? Why?" Xander asked, though he figured it out a moment later when he thought about how everyone seemed to react badly to the Addams name.

"Most of the Journals that deal in Potions theory only want to deal in..." The girl shuddered, "*light* potions. Gram-mama insists on protecting the Addams name from such perversions."

Xander was learning that he really shouldn't take anything on first impressions when it came to Wednesday or her family.

* * *

Christmas came quickly, and despite the increasingly gruesome atmosphere, Xander found himself enjoying himself. It was pretty strange to be seeing what he would consider Halloween being mixed with Christmas, but the more he was around the family the more he saw it as just who they were.

It was kind of fun too, he quickly found, in a novel way.

They never yelled, at least not in anger, and that alone made it one of the better holidays Xander had enjoyed. He and Fenrir found themselves thoroughly enjoying the castle, and the large grounds outside, often spending their days running with Wednesday and Pugsley, exploring the hills and the castle alike, and more often than not finding things that sent chills down Xander's spine.

It was only the total positive glee the other two took in locating dangerous snakes and spiders that kept Xander from bolting for his life half the time. It quickly became a point of pride that he could stand anywhere NEAR those two when their eyes shone with that unholy light that told him they'd located something really disturbing.

Christmas day came quickly and Xander found a pile of gifts under the tree with his name on them. Some gaily wrapped, much to the Addams clear disgust, and some more fitting with the local decor. Xander didn't have to guess which ones were from which parts of his life.

Wednesday got a whole slew of potions ingredients, including a few that Xander was pretty sure were so rare as to be nearly impossible to find. He was surprised when she, Pugsley, and himself all received brooms, American model Stratus Comfort Brooms.

"Wow..." Xander said, his quiet awe drowned out by Pugsley's yelp of glee. He looked up at the two Addams' whose names had been on the package. "I don't know, I mean... this is too much."

"Nonsense." Gomez said airily, waving his cigar around. "Top quality brooms are important in the magical culture. These are good training models, we'll get you all racing brooms next year if you learn to handle these well."

"We will, we promise!" Pugsley yelled, still grinning.

Xander smiled, "I... Well, I'm going to learn, for sure. I don't think we're allowed brooms at school this year, though."

"Bah, what are rules for if not to be broken," Gomez grinned, "The answer to that problem is simple, right Wednesday?"

The dark girl merely smiled *slightly*.

"Of course, Father." She said, running her hand over the dark wood of the broom, one finger lightly tracing the chrome plate on the forward edge, "Don't get caught."

"Precisely!"

Xander grinned, as weird as the Addamses were, they were fun to be around once you started to get used to their unique views of life.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The rest of the holidays passed quickly, and as with every holiday Xander could remember, ended abruptly with him heading back to school. It wasn't so bad this time, though, cause he had to admit his classes were hilarious, if not outright fun, and the subject matter was almost universally of interest to him.

The portkey brought them back to Hogsmeade a couple days before classes were to start, and Mr. Addams escorted them through the wards to the main gate.

"Distasteful things." He said, glaring up as they approached the castle.

"What's that, Sir?"

"The wards. They're clearly racist."

Xander frowned, "I thought they only kept out dark creatures?"

"Precisely!" Gomez fumed, "What if some poor werewolf or vampire wanted to attend classes? It's discriminating, I tell you."

Xander frowned, but nodded dutifully, more because he knew that would satisfy Gomez rather than in agreement. The Addamses had certainly given him a lot to think about, but he just didn't know enough to say anything.

At the gates they were met by Argus Filch, who was as always grumbling about being at the beck and call of the brats who plagued the castle.

"Back in my day they let us string up the little runts who caused trouble," He muttered darkly, quiet enough to expect to go unheard, but that's not how it went.

"Capital idea, old man!" Gomez clapped Argus Filch on the back, shocking the sour faced old man into silence. "Nothing like some decent recreation to break up the scholastic doldrums!"

"They don't let us play with the torture equipment here," Wednesday sighed.

"What!? Why ever not?" Gomez blurted, honestly shocked.

"It's not considered wholesome."

Gomez stopped in mid-step, looking at his daughter with horror in his eyes. "What? Nonsense! What could be more wholesome than children playing!?"

By this point even Argus was staring at Gomez like he was some kind of strange creature from another world. Wednesday just sighed, "It's alright, Father."

"By George it is NOT!" Gomez raised his voice, attracting attention from down the hall. "I won't have it! Children should be children, and what's more childish than a spot of torture now and then?"

A soft chuckle announced the arrival of another person, and they all looked over to see the white haired Headmaster approach.

"A quite fantastic way of putting things, Mr. Addams." Dumbledore said, his tone warm and amused.

"It is!?" Filch blurted, his tone horrified, though whether it was by Addams' statement or the idea of children playing with his collection of torture implements, no one could tell.

"Indeed. However, I'm afraid that the board of governors would look askance on our permitting the children to inflict harm on one another." Dumbledore said.

"It's an outrage, Sir." Gomez grumbled, "How are they supposed to learn?"

That gave Dumbledore pause, and he blinked as he looked at the Addams Patriarch. "Learn? Learn what pray tell?"

"Why, the fundamentals of course! How to ride that exquisite line of pain in order to keep your victim alive and focused without blurring the experience!? How to properly maintain your tools... Rusty manacles are asking for all sorts of problems in the dungeon... and what about..."

"Father," Wednesday cut in, drawing the attention of all the adults, as well as Xander. "That's what home study is for."

That took the wind out of Gomez' sails, but actually caused Dumbledore to blanche slightly at the little girl who had so calmly made such a statement.

Gomez, however, just sighed. "Of course, you're right, Wednesday darling. I just hate to see children so disadvantaged."

Having spent the holidays with the family, Xander had become desensitized to the often bizarre trains of thought they all seemed to follow, the others in the area didn't however, and the pale faces and shocked looks almost had him laughing out loud at the entire group.

"Uh, yes well, we must all endure." Dumbledore managed to get out in a strangled voice.

"Too true." Gomez nodded sadly, putting and arm across the old wizards shoulders as he patted the Headmaster's back in commiseration. "It seems our lot in life to see inequity ravage our world's children."

As everyone stared Gomez just shrugged and turned back to Wednesday, "Are you certain you'll be alright here?"

Wednesday merely nodded, "Of course, Father."

Gomez nodded and sighed, "very well. I'll be off then, owl me if you need anything."

"I will, Father."

Gomez turned to Xander then, "And the same to you, young man. It was a pleasure to have you with us for the holidays."

Xander, now used to the family's sense of formality smiled slightly and half bowed. "It was my pleasure, Sir. Thank you for having me."

"Anytime."

With that, Gomez Addams turned and strode out of the school, leaving gaping figures in his wake.

Xander exchanged a glance with Wednesday, noting the hidden smile in her eyes, and wondered just how oblivious to other people's morals she and her family really were.

* * *

Slytherin house was pretty quiet when Xander made his way in, most of the house still at home for the holidays as far as he knew. That left Xander with the time to carefully stash his new broom under his bed, carefully sandwiched between some random stuff that should hold no interest to any snoopers. It wasn't the best security, but it would do.

For the moment his concern was actually the twins, and how to appropriately return the experience they had favored him with. It was going to take some heavy duty planning, and a lot of study. Now, normally that would have been enough to send him packing, but this was one time that study was actually fun.

Xander really didn't understand how anyone could NOT love most of the assignments they were given. Making things fly? Changing some things shape? Every class was an experience in comic book goodness brought to life. Oh, it wasn't always easy, for sure but he was willing to endure in exchange for the ability to shift his shape, turn invisible, and fly around at better than a hundred miles an hour on a fricken broomstick.

Nailing the twins, however, was going to take some tricks well beyond his year and skill.

Xander sighed, opening up the Grimoire and moved on to the next step in transfiguration techniques.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy frowned softly as she read over the notes made in the Grimoire. The person on the other end of the book was focusing heavily on transfiguration so far, and she wondered if it was because this was his or her passion, or if they had a plan.

"Draco, honey," She glanced over to where her son was playing a game of wizard chess against the magical board. "Tell me about Hogwarts today."

"Hmm?" Draco glanced up as one of his knights eviscerated the opposing Bishop. "What do you want to know?"

"When I was there we had to deal with a group calling themselves the Marauders," Narcissa said pensively, "They styled themselves as pranksters supreme, is there anyone like that?"

Draco snorted, "The Weasley Twins. They're always causing trouble, usually picking on Slytherins."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Draco said, distracted by his game. "They got one of ours just a little while before the holidays, though I think it was by accident."

"Why do you think that?"

"I think they were aiming for the Slytherin Quidditch players," Draco said, "but they got a first year instead. He refused to give them up to Snape, though. The professor was furious."

"Ah."

Narcissa expected that was an understatement, knowing her son's godfather's proclivities. How Dumbledore had managed to get him installed as a Potions professor still utterly boggled her mind, even with Lucius pulling strings on the board.

Draco didn't look up from the board as he continued, "Harris stuck to his wand though, wouldn't give them up for some reason."

Narcissa straightened slightly, looking at her son sharply. "Did you say 'Harris'?"

"Yeah, Alexander something Harris. He goes by the ludicrous nickname 'Xander'."

"Is he of the Harris line?" Narcissa asked bluntly.

Draco frowned, "What Harris line?"

"The Harris Family is a very old pure blood line, Draco. I had thought they had died out ages ago."

Draco shrugged, "I don't know. I can't imagine him being of any important bloodline, mother, he's a colonial."

"The Americas or Australia?" Narcissa asked sharply.

"Uh, America. Why?"

"Many of the Australian families are descended from families that sent their black sheep members away as punishment. Most of those were stricken from the family line before being packed away on the ships." Narcissa explained, "The Americas were populated primarily by those who chose to leave, some were stricken from the lists anyway, but many were not."

"So Harris might be a family Heir?" Draco blinked.

"It's possible. I'm sure Gringotts still maintains the vaults for the old families."

"Why would they do that?"

"Family lines go dormant quite often, particularly in the wizarding world, Draco." She told him, "Squib descendants can't claim a vault, but if they have magical children then those may come forward. Additionally many of the old families, most in fact, are patriarchal. It can take several generations before a magical male heir comes forward by times."

Draco snorted, "So Harris might be rich?"

Narcissa shook her head, "Unlikely. Most of the old vaults would have been stripped by their last heirs, or their inheritors. The vaults themselves, however, are contracted to the family line."

"An empty vault? What good is that?" Draco rolled his eyes.

Narcissa permitted herself an expression that bordered on both a smile and a frown. "Draco, please, put some thought into it."

Draco blinked, looking taken aback, then frowned. "Only an heir can claim a vault... would there be other things in the vault?"

Narcissa smiled very slightly, "Precisely. There may well be, though it's hard to say. Of course, unless he is quite wealthy, an heir could well bankrupt himself trying to claim it."

"Why?"

"Goblins, Draco, don't stop charging Vault fees simply because a vault is empty you know." Narcissa shrugged, "On a particularly old vault one might find the fees associated with claiming it to be... quite significant."

Draco blinked, then shuddered. "Filthy sub creatures. They should have been wiped out ages ago."

Narcissa sighed, but said nothing further on the matter. Lucius had infected her son with his attitude and, worse, neither showed the slightest aptitude of being able to HIDE their internal prejudices. It would get her son in trouble someday, but she couldn't seem to impress on him the importance of diplomacy.

It was terribly frustrating.

* * *

He almost had it.

What he had, he wasn't sure yet, but Xander was certain that he almost had it.

The plan to get back at the twins was still percolating, but slowly it had begun to firm up into something he could really begin to work on. The first step had been the concept, which had been easy. The twins themselves gave him the biggest part of that, Xander was an eye for an eye kind of person. The next step was the hardest, the prep work, but he had an idea for that.

Delivery and Execution, it turned out, would be almost as easy as concept.

The Grimoire was the key to it all, Xander found, when he read one of the sections describing how the Marauders got away with many of their pranks. A couple days after arriving back to school, Xander made his first appearance in the Hogwarts kitchens.

* * *

"Yes, young Sir, cans we be helping you?"

Xander shifted nervously, looking around, "Uh... yeah, I was wondering if I could get a snack?"

The funny looking little fellow practically shuddered in glee, nodding instantly. "Certainly, young master, what would you likes?"

"Uh... a sandwich?" Xander blinked, surprised that it was that easy, despite what the grimoire had to say on the matter.

The elf quickly belted out a long selection list, and Xander asked for roast beef, then it was off like a flash as the little fellow built a sandwich, literally, on the fly. When it came back, large plate of food and a large mug of pumpkin juice in hand, Xander could see how incredibly happy the little fellow was to be of help.

"Um," Xander took a bite, then smiled, "Great food, thanks."

The little elf twitched again, sighing in pleasure, then bounced up and down. "Mikey is pleased to help, anytime, young master."

"Uh, how come you guys don't show yourselves anyway?" Xander asked, leaning against the wall as he ate.

"Oh, school elves is not allowed to show themselves to students, Sir."

Xander blinked, "But what about... now?"

"Mikey did not show himself to young master, young master showed himself to Mikey." The Elf explained patiently.

Xander nodded, he'd guessed that it was something like that from the description in the book. The rules were there, and were ironclad, but the iron seemed to have rusted through in more than a few spots. "Say, uh, Mikey, could you help me out? I was wondering where they did the laundry?"

"Oh, Laundry elves handle that, Sir. Mikey show you."

And the elf proceeded to do just that, leading Xander through the back rooms and passageways of Hogwarts as he made mental notes and tried not to get lost all the while listening the elf babble on in it's odd way of speaking.

The grimoire was right, he found quickly, the elves were the key to Hogwarts.

They ran everything, from what Xander could tell, controlled everything from behind the scenes. Food, laundry, most cleaning, hell Xander was honestly trying to figure out what Filch did other than catch students who were out of bounds. Of course, it was possible that was his entire job.

When the tour was finished, and Xander had stopped asking questions, he thanked the elves profusely and made his way back to the Slytherin common room.

One obstacle down, one more to go.

* * *

The students arrival back at Hogwarts was a big deal, with food and a lot of merry chatter filling the great hall as people shared stories of their holidays. Xander considered doing just that, but somehow playing torture with Wednesday seemed creepy even to him now that he wasn't surrounded by the Addamses twenty four hours a day.

They had a cool yet creepy effect on people, Xander decided.

He smiled to Hermione as she walked past the table, heading for the Gryffindor seating, earning himself a smile in return. Draco Malfoy, on his right, however sneered at her and then glared over at Xander.

"Why are you smiling at the mudblood, Harris?"

Xander glanced over at the blond boy, "Why not?"

Draco paused, seeming to look for a response, "Because she's a mudblood!"

"Which means what?" Xander asked, shrugging.

"She's not a pureblood, you idiot."

"I'm still trying to see why that matters."

Draco was slowly turning a rather disturbing shade of pink at Xander's continued oblivious stance. He could handle someone attacking him back, but how was he supposed to handle someone who didn't even acknowledge that his point of view had any validity?

"She's beneath us!" Draco blurted, not noticing that he had unconsciously referred to Xander as a pureblood, one of his own in effect.

"So... you're argument is based on the assumption that we're better than she is?" Xander replied.

"Of course."

"Ok. Prove it."

Draco blinked again. "What?"

"Prove it. What makes you better?"

"I'm a pureblood!"

"Uh... ok, what makes a pureblood better?"

"Uh..." Draco stammered, thinking furiously. He couldn't actually think of any examples, but that was just the fact that he was being put on the spot, of course. His father had talked about how inferior mudbloods were all his life, so there had to be some examples in there.

"She's one of the smartest students in the school," Xander said calmly, "Ok... she's a bit of a know it all, really, but that's cause she's nervous a lot. I've got a friend back home who's the same way. Magically, she seems to be at least equal to the average, I mean she's not the strongest but she's not the weakest either. Right?"

Draco found himself nodding, almost against his will. It was true enough, he supposed.

"So why is she beneath us?" Xander asked, unknowingly cementing the opinions of everyone around him that he must be a pureblood from the colonies.

"I'm a Malfoy." Draco ground out.

Xander frowned, wondering what that had to do with it, but remembered some of his classes so far. "Ah. Nobility, right?"

Daphne Greengrass snickered.

Draco just turned redder, fuming.

"What?" Xander looked confused.

"The Malfoy's aren't nobility. They're a merchant family." Daphne said after a moment's indecision.

"Ah, well Hermione's family are dentists. That's a type of healer," Xander said, "in Muggle terms they're very respected and very well paid... well, ok, not so much on the respected. No one likes dentists," he finished with a grin.

Some of the table looked curious, but it was Daphne who asked. "Why?"

"They do specialized healing of the teeth, it can hurt and it really sucks to have anyone poking around in your mouth for a couple hours." Xander replied, grinning.

"Barbarians." Malfoy said with a sneer.

Xander shrugged, having had this conversation with Hermione some time ago. "They don't have potions and charms, so they do things their own way. It works, though not as good as the right healing charm. The point is, they are rather well respected despite my earlier joke, and are pretty comfortable when it comes to money."

"But they're not magical." Draco said, trumping the conversation.

"No, but Hermione is." Xander returned. "So what makes her worse than you?"

Draco redoubled his glare, but honestly Xander didn't give a damn. He'd been glared at by kids and adults his entire life, usually for doing just what he was doing here and now. At least so far it was just talking, though Xander supposed that had as much to do with it being in the middle of the Great Hall during meal time.

"Tell you what, take your time, come up with a reason or two, and we'll do this again." Xander said after a moment, smirking perhaps a little too childishly for his own good. "In the meantime, let's eat."

Draco glared at him for several minutes, then spent the rest of the meal shooting death glares alternatively at Xander and Hermione. Xander just tried to ignore him, at least the boy wasn't insulting his friends for now.

He didn't notice Daphne Greengrass eying him with a curious air during the rest of the meal.

* * *

That night Xander moved into the next step in his plan, code named 'Operation : Twin Humiliation'.

This time it involved making his way to the Slytherin common room and finding someone specific. He lucked out, noticing that she was alone and reading in a corner, and quickly made his way over to her.

"Hey."

The seventh year lowered her book, her garishly pink hair practically qualifying as a stunner spell.

"Wotcher."

"I need help." Xander said, taking a breath.

She snorted, "Do your own homework, midget."

"Not that kind of help." Xander forced a smile. "I've got a plan to take the twins down a peg. You're the best in your year in transfiguration, right?"

Her hair cycled colors for a moment, then she smirked, "Comes naturally, you might say. You think a midget like you can take on the twins?"

"Hear me out, then decide. Deal?" Xander said, extending his hand.

She laughed, and took his hand. "Deal. Call me Tonks, midget."

"The name is Xander, Tonks." Xander grinned, "Here's the plan..."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

With things set up, Xander just had to decide on timing.

That, however, was proving trickier than expected to decide on. The twins, like the rest of the Gryff Quidditch team, were barely around for classes as the team Captain poured on the practice sessions like some kind of insane monkey. Xander considered springing it on them during those couple of weeks, but frankly he felt sorry for the poor buggers and let it go for a while.

In the meantime school went on as usual, which was both for the good and bad.

Xander had earned a cold shoulder from Malfoy with his challenges, but little else, while the rest of the house had apparently shifted him from 'unknown' status toward the neutral camp. That caused a few to open up a bit, but in Slytherin house there weren't too many warm buddies of any type so nothing much changed.

Draco remained a prick to the rest of the school, bullying and taunting wherever he could get away with it, and a few places he couldn't. Xander watched him and his two goons corner one of the Gryff's who'd been caught out alone, hitting him with various jinxes before taunting him and leaving him with a leg locker in place.

After they'd gone, Xander stepped out of the corner he'd leaned in and drew his wand.

"You too? Go ahead," The Gryff muttered, shaking his head, "Why not?"

Xander didn't say anything as he cast the counter to the jinx and pocketed his wand again. "Longbottom, right?"

"Yeah... What do you want from me?"

"Nothing." Xander shrugged, "Just don't much like bullies."

Longbottom snorted, "I thought you were a Slytherin."

"I'm me." Xander told him, "My house has nothing to do with who I am."

"Right. Well, thanks."

"No problem. You want some advice?" Xander replied as the boy walked past him.

"Sure, why not?"

"Hit them back."

"Huh?"

"Hit them back. They'll leave you alone."

"Sure. Just hit them back and they'll run off, I bet."

"No, they'll beat the crap out of you. But if you hurt them too, next time they'll look for someone easier." Xander replied honestly. "Bullies don't like getting hurt."

"Makes two of us."

"Look, Neville, right?"

Neville nodded.

"No one likes getting hurt," Xander replied, then frowned, "Well, no one I know except the Addams family... but they're pretty twisted."

Neville blinked, confused.

"Never mind, my point is, if you've got the guts to take the pain, you can prevent more of it in the future," Xander told him. "That's how it works with Bullies. You fight back, yeah you'll take a beating, but if you take it with style and send them whining to their momma they won't come back the next time."

Neville stared at him for a moment, then nodded curtly before walking off. Xander watched him go, then shook his head and wondered why he bothered really.

"You're wasting your time."

Xander twisted to see Daphne Greengrass approach from around the same corner he'd been concealed at. "It's my time."

The brunette nodded, acknowledging the point. "I guess. He's not worth it though. Longbottom's practically a squib, there's no value there."

Xander looked confused, "Excuse me?"

She didn't seem to notice, "Of course his family is old money, with a seat on the Wizengamot. I suppose that in the long term if may pay off."

"What are you talking about?"

She looked at him evenly, "You mean you're not trying to earn favors?"

Xander just looked confused.

"Why'd you help him then?"

"He needed help, and I don't like bullies." Xander told her, "I have a couple good friends who were bullied a lot when I was a younger."

Daphne just laughed, shaking her head, "Are you sure you're not supposed to be in Gryffindor?"

Xander shrugged, "The hat seemed to consider it a toss-up between Gryff, the Puffs, and the Snakes. I didn't much care which."

"Loyal, brave, and... well, must be cunning, cause you're obviously not ambitious." She concluded, "interesting. I was offered Ravenclaw, myself."

"Why'd you turn it down?" Xander asked, somewhat curious.

"I wanted to make family connections, and Slytherin is the best place to do that if I want to hook up with as many real power families as possible." She told him casually. "You're not like most of the kids we get here, not the purebloods anyway. You act more like a muggle born."

Xander shrugged, not planning on admitting to being muggle born or whatever it was that he was. Frankly he wasn't sure on that, and trying to figure it out kind of gave him a headache. "So?"

"Nothing," She said in reply, "Just commenting. Most of the purebloods who come here are trained from the time they can talk to move through the shadows of power, you just act different."

"I'm an American." Xander said, having found that to be a good answer to anything weird.

She nodded, "Yes. I'd heard that they had a far different system than we have here. How does it work, anyway?"

Xander shrugged, "Never really my thing."

Daphne just nodded.

"I don't get this pureblood thing myself," Xander shrugged, "but there's a lot I don't get, so that's no surprise."

"Purebloods are really just another term for old families," Daphne said after a moment, "those who have power and don't want to lose it. Malfoy could have claimed nobility, you know, if he'd been able to think through the rage you put him in. The Malfoy's are merchants, but his mother is a Black. They're full on nobility, I think that the head of house is a Duke or Baron, though it's pretty pointless now."

"How come?" Xander asked, the name 'Black' pricking up his ears.

"The family is dead." She shrugged, "The only living members have been cast out, I think, and Malfoy will inherit the title and estate when he turns seventeen. Since he's a Malfoy, the family title will be transferred over to him and the Black family will die out officially. Then he'll be able to answer yes if you ask him if he's nobility."

Xander shook his head, "Sounds complicated."

"It's the way things are."

"Why are you telling me this?" Xander eyed her closely.

She smiled, "I see there's some Slytherin paranoia in you after all. I'm telling you this because I'm thinking maybe you're going to have some influence. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I don't risk much by telling you some stuff everyone already knows, but you will owe me a small favor. Maybe later, you will be able to tell me something I should know. That's how things work here."

Xander stared at her evenly for a moment, then frowned slowly. "How many people in Slytherin are thinking like this?"

"Most of us, of course." Daphne shrugged, then waved her hand, "Oh Malfoy and his two dimwits aren't. Draco is too arrogant to think about what other people might be willing to do for him, he only sees what he can make them do. Crabbe and Goyle are bookends, too dumb to tie their shoelaces let alone thing for themselves. But they're not really what makes up Slytherin house."

"And the rest of the school?"

"Most of the purebloods think the same, or pretty close." She frowned, considering, "I suspect that Longbottom is probably the furthest from that, even though his family is minor nobility. From what my mother told me, they didn't expect him to come to Hogwarts, so his family didn't train him to take over. They're probably scrambling to do that now. The Weasleys know the game, I expect, what with the mother being a Prewitt and their dad being in the Ministry, but they don't have the cash to play the game so they mostly ignore it."

That was the second name he recognized, and now Xander was actually getting interested. "Prewitt? Important family?"

"They were," Daphne nodded, "but they took a lot of deaths in the last war. Now they're mostly dead too. I think there's a direct line heir, but he's some old man who doesn't get involved in politics."

"How do you know all this?" Xander asked, actually pretty impressed.

"I told you, most of the purebloods know it by our age. It's how you figure out who not to annoy, and who to help in exchange for favors." She told him, "it's important business, life and death for a family. Especially now."

"Why now?"

Daphne had known that he was clueless, but it hadn't really penetrated just how little he really knew. She was getting the picture now, and berated herself for starting the conversation. Still, he was gaining some credibility in the house among both the pure bloods and the neutrals, and several of the mixed blood and muggle born outcasts in their year looked to him for protection, though it was clear he didn't know it.

For the moment he was nothing, but that could change, and her mother had always told her to watch for the future power, not merely the present. In Slytherin house the present power was Draco Malfoy, Marcus Flint, and a small scattering of others across the years. The future power, though, was obscured as was usual for the house.

In Gryffindor it was blatantly obvious. Potter was going to be a force to deal with, assuming he survived all the enemies he had, with him Weasley was likely to rise into some power, and the muggle born Granger would also share in Potter's influence.

The Puffs were hard to tell, though Diggory was clearly on the rise there.

Among the Ravenclaws things were a little clearer, since Cho Chang was carving out a place for herself beyond her year, guided by Marietta Edgecomb, who had strong pure blood ties. The dark horse there, literally it seemed, was the Addams girl. She held no sway, but neither was there anyone in the entire school basically who wanted to go against her. That in itself was power, and could change into influence later on.

Daphne licked her lips unconsciously, considering that Harris had by luck or genius foresight placed himself in a position to influence two potentially interesting individuals in other houses. Yes, he was worth spending some time on.

Speaking of which, she found him staring at her, and shook her head clear of her straying thoughts and focused on his question.

"Why now? Because of the war," She answered, "A lot of prominent families were basically destroyed, like the Blacks and the Prewitts. Wizards live long lives, which can put a crimp in inheritance laws, but basically over the next few years a lot of houses are going to change as their heirs come of age to claim the head of family title. Longbottom, Malfoy, and Potter are just the most visible."

"Harry too?" Xander mused.

"Oh yes, The Potter's are an old family, something of a mixed blood line but they're considered pure blood by most." She said, "Not quite nobility, but they have their own crest and coat of arms, the Potter's have traditionally been Knights and, more recently, Aurors. I understand that Harry's relatively wealthy, though no one is really sure of how much because the Goblins don't let even the ministry mess around with family vaults and finances."

"Sounds like a complicated mess."

"It is." Daphne admitted with a shrug. "But it's our complicated mess, we know our way around."

They may, Xander noted, but she'd admitted that Neville probably didn't know as much as he should, and Xander would bet Harrys didn't know anything from what little he'd heard from the boy and Hermione.

"So Malfoy acts like a dick cause he's going to inherit a title?"

Daphne laughed, "no, Draco just is a dick as you put it. The title makes him worse it all, don't be surprised if he works it into the conversation at meals as soon as it occurs to him."

Xander nodded, unsurprised. He wondered just how much education actually went on outside of Hogwarts suddenly, and whether it really mattered to him. He didn't have to walk through the minefield, after all.

"Thanks," He said after a moment, "I'll think about what you've said. You mind if I ask you some questions later, maybe?"

"Just not in front of Draco," She told him, unwilling to be seen to be taking sides.

"Deal. Thanks again."

Daphne just nodded and left him there, leaving Xander to think about it for a moment before heading for the library. He needed to think, and the talk to Hermione or Wednesday, and just maybe look some stuff up.

* * *

Hermione wasn't there, but Wednesday was, and Xander dropped into the seat across from her with a cheery grin. "Hey there."

She looked up at him evenly, "Hello."

"You know anything about all the family stuff everyone seems to care so much about here?" He asked, leaning in to check what she was reading.

A History of Witch burnings. Lovely.

"Some." She told him. "Why?"

"Dunno, just got a crash course on it from a housemate," Xander shrugged, "Seems like Malfoy is set to inherit a noble title, and he's not the only one. Guess that war everyone whispers about really messed them up around here."

The Addams Scion raised an eyebrow, "Really? Wars are so interesting. The death, carnage, mayhem. It makes for fascinating reading."

"You read about it then?"

She nodded, "Yes. However the books are probably wrong."

"Oh? How come?"

"They're mostly written by people who weren't involved, often based on reports by people who heard about the events from someone else. That does not make for a good history book."

Xander had to agree with that point. "Well I guess there were a lot of families basically destroyed, and a lot of the next people in line to take over those families are just starting to come of age now."

"That would explain some of the things I've seen," Wednesday mused, "Family survival is nothing to be played around with. People have committed genocide over less."

"Yeah..." Xander said slowly, "Sure."

"I suppose the question becomes... what do we do about it?"

"Do?"

She shrugged, "You must have a reason for bringing it up."

Xander frowned, "I... guess I didn't think that far ahead."

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Boys."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"My, my, who have you been talking with?"

Narcissa Malfoy was surprised to see the shift in direction the young man had taken, moving away from practical spells into pureblood politics of all things. This was one of her areas of expertise, of her family only Andromeda had surpassed her in this field, and Andy had long since retired from this field to live with her muggle born lover.

In her mind she refused to consider the man as Andy's husband, he simple wasn't worthy of her sister, even if Andy had been stricken from the family lineage.

She noted some interesting observations in the notes, and was surprised that the boy seemed to grasp some of the less obvious effects the war had had on house lines. Given his relative ignorance of such things up to this point, it seemed obvious that he had acquired another tutor.

Narcissa made some notes in return, pointing out a few of the things she had determined over the intervening years, and corrected a few of his false assumptions. She hesitated when she noticed his notations on the Black family as it pertained to one Draco Malfoy in particular. He was under the impression that the Black family was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Now that thought rankled, even if it was her son who was poised to take over the family in a few years. It especially rankled because it was true. Narcissa was a proud Black, and it maddened her to know how badly her family had fared in the war.

Oh, it was certainly no worse than many others, she could admit, but they were Blacks by God, they were better than that. Many of the Blacks had sided with the Dark Lord, many others had chosen the ministry. Sirius had stepped into line with Dumbledore, alone among his family.

The results for the male heirs of the family was uniformly consistent. They all died, no matter what side they chose. All save for Sirius, of course, who had turned out to be a traitor.

Narcissa hadn't believed it when she heard it, actually. It seemed impossible, Sirius was devoted to James Potter. If the Potter's had been a Noble Family, Narcissa had little doubt that Sirius would have sworn allegiance to them.

For him to betray them, well it was inconceivable.

However, after long weeks and months with no public trial, no scandal, no sound out of him whatsoever... well, even she had her doubts. If he had pulled off such a spectacular infiltration of the so called 'light', well she rather suspected that his mother would have been proud. For all the good it would have done the old bat, her sons both dead on the altar of that maniac's agenda.

Narcissa sighed and closed the book, not in the mood to make the usual corrective notes any longer. She remembered the days following the Dark Lord's defeat quite well. It had been a panicked time in Malfoy Manor, with Lucius constantly hosting meetings with the surviving Death Eaters and Ministry officials.

A huge chunk of the Malfoy fortune had vanished in those few weeks, but they came through it intact and still strong enough to rebuild, which was better than most. She had gained a respect for her husband then, recognizing that he was capable of great things when pushed. His adulation of the Dark Lord aside, Lucius Malfoy was an impressive individual.

Over the years, though, he had grown more and more bitter over the loss of destiny as he saw it. Muggle-borns were becoming more common, as squib births also rose among pureblood families. Narcissa closed her eyes, thinking of her second son and only daughter, two children who had mysteriously vanished when the standard magical tests revealed them to be squib born.

After the birth, and disappearance, of Morgana Malfoy, her third child, Lucius stopped coming to her bedchambers entirely. Their love life had never been what Lilly would have referred to as 'hot and heavy', but it ended then, with the second squib birth. She had never been able to get Lucius to tell her what happened to either of them, whether he'd sent them away or...

Narcissa closed her eyes and cried silently, as she learned to do a long time earlier.

* * *

The second term seemed to rush along, Xander felt, weeks passing in a blur as he attended classes and found himself actually trying to learn as much as he could for the first time in his life. Part of it was the fact that the classes were simply damned cool, in his opinion, but part of it was self-defense as well.

He wasn't really safe even in his own bed, he learned after some petty retribution from Malfoy left him in the infirmary for a few hours after a hex on his bedclothes left him with a bad rash. So advanced reading in defense put him around fifth in the class, behind Harry, Hermione, Wednesday, and Draco himself unfortunately enough.

Charms were cool, and he did pretty well there, second in his house year, but only eighth overall. His marks in transfiguration and potions were roughly in the same category, which meant that while he wasn't up for any honor awards, his scores were respectable.

Willow would be so proud.

That said, he filed Malfoy away as a minor pest, and returned his focus to the twins.

The Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch match was nearly on them by that point, and Xander decided that the time was set to spring his little trap. After a hurried conference with Tonks, who had held up her end of the bargain, Xander planted the goods in the Gryffindor laundry while the Elves were away, and ducked out to await the fireworks.

* * *

They hit the morning of the match, much to Xander's delight. He hadn't been able to exactly ensure the timing, so he'd hedged his bets a little with some extra work, and it seemed to pay off.

Breakfast was in full swing, the whole school turned out as they were eager to see the match play out and watched a good jump on the day. At the Gryff table the twins were making their usual spectacle when one of the pranks went off on Neville, leaving the boy sprouting feathers and attracting the attentions of the entire hall on their table as the Gryffs began to laugh.

It was the perfect cue for Xander and he drew his wand under the table, then carefully nodded to Tonks. She nodded back and they both cast the spell she had tutored him in until he had it perfect. It was really just a slightly more advanced version of the first year Finite spell, designed to cancel simple and unprotected charms and jinxes. This one was selective as well, letting them target a specific spell, as long as they knew it was there.

Which, of course, they did.

Half the Gryff table suddenly yelped as the other half were just as suddenly dressed in Slytherin Green. Ronald Weasley had somehow found himself wearing a large green foam finger with the #1 written on it in silver, and he wasn't the only one. As most of them stared at it, and the other similar touches in dumbfounded shock, it slowly penetrated into their heads and the roar of outrage began.

A roar that ended just as quickly when they realized that not everyone affected had been hit the same way.

Xander had considered leaving it at that, for about a second. Then he decided that merely returning the favor wasn't remotely enough. So he made special arrangements for two of the Gryffs.

The Twins were staring at each other in a strange mix of shock and delight, which Xander found kinda disturbing actually. The rest of the school, however, was just staring in delight as the laughter swelled.

Their robes had been replaced by green and silver, true enough, but the ultrashort miniskirts they now had on showed off two pairs of truly horrifying legs, and the stuffed shirts gave the twins more prominent chests than any girl in the entire school.

They, in unison, came to a conclusion and instantly drew their wands and pointed it at each other just as Xander had *dearly* hoped they would.

"Finite incantatem!" They yelled together.

The school gasped in total shock as their spells worked flawlessly, removing the spells on the Cheerleader outfits instantly. Unfortunately, since both outfits had been conjured by Tonks and not made from real materials, the Twins found themselves standing in front of the entire school in their underwear.

One had red shorts with blue polka dots, while the other apparently preferred blue shorts with red dots. Xander, very briefly, wondered which was which but really didn't care. He just smiled smugly and sat back as everyone else laughed their asses off.

Justice served.

* * *

"Merlin, Xander, that was perfect!" Tonks laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks as she leaned against the stone wall. "Forgive me for doubting you!"

"You're forgiven, but please not so loud!" Xander hissed, checking around the common room to see if anyone was near.

Tonks nodded, catching her breath, "Sorry. Though anyone here who hears you will likely give you a medal!"

"Maybe, but I'd rather the twins didn't get any idea who set them up, if you don't mind." Xander smirked.

"Yeah, that would be bad," She agreed. "Whatever gave you the idea of using cheerleader outfits anyway?"

Xander shrugged, "I've never liked cheerleaders."

Tonks raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment, "Well midget, if you need any more help, I'm you're metamorph."

"I'll keep that in mind," Xander grinned, "But all things considered I'm hoping to stay under the radar for a bit."

She laughed and nodded, heading for the seventh year girls dorms as Xander made ready to do some work while the rest of the school obsessed over Quidditch.

* * *

The Gryff's won their match despite the flaming red faces and general humiliation they went through over the next couple days. Their point lead in the race for the house cup was secured by the win, then lost the same night when Harry, Hermione, and Ronald were caught out after dark, which lead the Xander being on the receiving end of a long and bitter pity party when he met Hermione in the library with Wednesday.

He would have let it go, knowing that his friend did have some cause to wail, but he wasn't an Addams.

"Shut up."

Hermione snapped back like she'd been slapped, staring in shock at the other girl. "What?"

"I said, shut up." Wednesday told her. "You took the risks of breaking the rules, and now you suffer the consequences of getting caught. Have the strength of your convictions and accept the responsibility for it. Next time either do not break the rules, or do not get caught."

Hermione quailed under the flat glare sent her way, but shuddered at the very idea of a next time. "Next time? There won't BE a next time! I'm never breaking the rules again!"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "And you're sure you are a Gryffindor?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"There are times when you do what is right, not what it expected or required. That is having courage of your convictions," Wednesday told her, "tell me, was it worth it?"

"What? Was what worth it?"

"You were out after curfew for a reason. Was it a foolish reason, or did you have a worthy cause?"

Hermione hesitated, then chewed on her lower lip. "We had a cause."

"Was it worth a hundred and fifty points?" Wednesday asked, not caring what the cause itself was.

Hermione hesitated again, then nodded.

"Then congratulations, most would have lost those points for something stupid. So shut up and let's study." The dark girl said calmly, returning to her books.

That ended the whining for the evening in a single swoop, and Xander was glad of it cause he had been feeling a little guilty about having made his friends day a little harder with his counter-prank.

* * *

The end of term was upon them quickly after that, with days rushing by until the exams were looming in the near future, and Xander found himself worrying about his brown haired friend.

Put frankly, Hermione was acting pretty weird.

Even Wednesday had remarked on it in her normal laconic way.

Of course it might have been the stress of exams, since Hermione was one seriously scary person under stress, but somehow Xander didn't think that was it. He found himself watching her intently, and realized shortly that it wasn't just her, but also Harry and Ronald as well.

He hoped they weren't up to more of whatever it was that got them in trouble before, cause he figured that there was only so much even the lax Dumbledore would accept before kicking someone out of school, but was actually kind of relieved that it wasn't just his friend. She'd have someone to cover her back, at least, and would hopefully know to ask for help if she needed it.

Besides, he was having more twin problems himself.

* * *

"We know..."

"It was you."

The two red heads had cornered him after dinner sometime after the great green Slytherin cheer event and confronted him with that.

"What was me?" Xander asked, faking a bewildered look.

They leveled steady gazes on him.

"That little prank."

"Me!? How could I pull that off!?" Xander went into his prepared act, "I'm only a firstie, remember? Those spells were way beyond me!"

The twins sighed in unison.

"That bothered us too,"

"Until we decided that you simply recruited help."

The two glared at him then, "You hand out with Hermione, did you put her up to helping you?"

Ouch. Xander almost winced at that, then returned the glare.

"Leave her out of this, if you go after my friends I'll make that prank look like a tack on your chair!"

The two looked confused.

"What's a tack?"

"And why would it be on our chair?"

Xander groaned, shaking his head, "Never mind. I didn't recruit Hermione in any pranks, I wouldn't do that to her."

"You're a snake."

"Of course you would."

Xander growled, glaring up at the duo, "I'm warning you..."

The twins smirked, "ooh, the ickle firstie is warning us."

"So scary."

"We're just telling you we know."

"So watch your back, ickle Alex."

"We're Weasleys. We don't get even..."

"We get ahead."

* * *

After that conversation, Xander had spent the following days dodging minor pranks and jokes from the twins bag of surprises. Luckily in this matter he HAD recruited Hermione, and she fed him inside information on what they were cooking up. Or, at least, what they had cooked up.

The twins were, as he found out in short order, pretty impressive at potions and charms. He learned quickly to be careful what he ate, as the twins were good at packing tricks into food, and had some way of getting it on the tables even in the Great Hall.

That really only meant one thing, of course.

They had an in with the Elves.

Luckily they tended to test their concoctions on their fellow Gryffs, which usually let Hermione warn him about what may be coming down the pipeline. After the first bout of transfiguration at the table, Xander had quickly gone to the elves and asked them to remain neutral, but had been informed that they never took sides.

Of course, as Xander had already proven, they could be duped.

That resulted in a sudden interest in learning detection spells, after which Xander and the twins found themselves at a stalemate once more. Of course, no one else had any idea that there was any sort of feud ongoing, as Xander wasn't admitting to anything, and the twins sure as hell weren't going to tell anyone that they had been pranked by a firstie.

"How long do you intend to let them get away with this?"

* * *

Xander looked up as Tonks sat by him in the corner of the common room where he was studying for the exams that were beginning the next day. "Get away with what?"

She glared at him, "All the charmed food and stuff they've been sneaking onto the table."

Xander shrugged, "it's minor stuff, Tonks. If I shoot back it'll just confirm that I was behind the stunt they're really mad about. Then we'll have a real war on our hands."

"Scared of them then?" Tonks smirked.

"Honestly? Yes." Xander grinned back. "I'm not in their league, and next year you'll be gone. So let them have their fun. They'll soon get tired of it and start to think that they have the wrong guy, and that's when they better start looking over their shoulders."

Tonks smirked, "Damn. You are a snake."

"No, I'm Xander." Xander replied, extending a hand, "nice to meet you."

She snorted, "Almost makes me wish I wasn't graduating, should be interesting next year."

"If I come back." Xander shrugged.

"You're not coming back?"

"Don't know. This place isn't as bad as I thought at first, but it's kinda treacherous," Xander admitted, "I don't like having to check my bed for Malfoy's tricks, my food for the twins pranks, and my back for whoever else I may have annoyed."

Tonks nodded, "Yeah, I get that. Still, be a shame to lose you, midget. You've got potential."

"Thanks, Tonks."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Exams ended with Slytherin in the lead for the House cup, and the common room was pretty happy about it though Xander didn't really see the point. The cheating for points had reached a level so blatant that he was surprised it hadn't been curtailed by the professors. It was one thing to bend the rules a little, or even tread right over them, if you got away with it unnoticed but the sheer staggering arrogance of cheating had been stunning, even to an eleven year old.

House points were forgotten for a brief moment, though, when rumors began to burn wildly through the entire school about Harry Potter and hi two friends. When the first of them reached Xander's ears he bolted for the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey had it barred off, but he was relieved to find his friend well and waiting.

"What happened?"

Hermione looked over at him, her expression a little tired and perhaps even desperate. She hugged at him and he hugged her back.

"Oh Xander! Harry and Ron are hurt, we have to beat all these traps to find the philosopher's stone and then it turns out that Professor Quirrell was really Volde... Voldemort... or something..."

Xander let her go, pushing her back so he could see her as he frowned questioningly, "That Dork lord dude? I thought he was dead?"

She shook her head, "Just his body."

"That usually means dead, Hermione."

"We're magical, Xander, remember? He must have done some ritual to stay alive."

"Lovely. Bad guys who won't stay dead, I knew this place felt like a comic book." Xander drawled, rolling his eyes. "Are Harry and the Twit ok?"

She slapped his arm lightly, "Don't call Ron that! He's not that bad, he beat McGonagall's giant chess set by sacrificing himself to get us through."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Giant chess set? *Wizard* Chess?"

She nodded.

He was impressed despite himself, "Alright, that earns him his name back. Are they going to be ok?"

She nodded hesitantly, "I think so. Ron was just a little battered, but Harry was pretty bad."

"He took on a professor turned evil overlord, that's to be expected. They have Quirrell chained up somewhere?"

"No, he died."

"He *killed* an evil overlord, even better," Xander cracked a grin, "Bonafide superhero stuff."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't correct him.

They waited together until Madam Pomfrey came out and shooed them off, telling them that Harry would be fine. Relieved they both left, however reluctantly Hermione was, passing the headmaster on their way out. When he was out of earshot, Xander shook his head and leaned in to Hermione.

"What the heck is a Philosopher's stone anyway?"

"Honestly, Xander, weren't you listening to Wednesday when she told us about Nicholas Flamel!?"

Xander frowned, "um... no?"

She growled at him and proceeded to lecture him, in detail, on the stone and its history.

To Xander it felt a lot like home.

* * *

The morning after Xander was seated with the rest of the Slytherins when Harry and the others showed up to breakfast and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know Harry much, and while Ron had earned his name back Xander still didn't care much about him, but they were both friends of Hermione so that made them important to him too.

The hall was draped in Slytherin green, and Xander could feel the smugness around him as he turned his focus on the meal once again. As he'd felt earlier there was no glory in winning something when everyone KNEW you'd cheated to get it, so he just let it be.

Then the Headmaster began his speech, and over the process of less than two minutes, destroyed the Slytherin's winning streak with the dispensing of a hundred and sixty points to Gryffindor. Around him the Slytherin's began crying out in outrage, but were drowned out by the cheers from the other three quarters of the school. Xander just rolled his eyes and went on eating.

"What's wrong with you!?" Draco shoved him, "They just stole the cup from us!"

Xander looked up at the blond and shook his head, "So?"

"So? It's the CUP, it's OURS."

"Draco, if everyone knows the game is rigged, the prize ain't worth squat." Xander replied, having seen enough of rigged games in Sunnydale. The teachers there always favored the rich kids, and that was just the way things were.

"What are you talking about!?" Draco was turning red as he ranted.

"Draco, how many points did you get unfairly from Professor Snape? How many did he steal from the other houses?" Xander shrugged, "The points are a joke, most of the other kids know it. In the library they were joking about the 'snakes' winning again, cause they know it's meaningless."

"What!? But..."

"Look around, the Claws and the Puffs aren't happy for the Gryffs, you know. They're just glad WE lost." Xander shrugged.

"But... that old muggle loving fool cheated, he gave them points for..."

"Saving an artifact from the Dork Lord Mold-in-his-Shorts." Xander finished, "Or something like that. Yeah, probably not a school thing, but still pretty impressive. Still, yeah, he cheated. No one cares except you and the Gryffs. The Puffs and the Claws didn't expect to win it anyway, the older students told all their first years that Slytherin cheats to win and the professors don't care. If the teachers don't care, why should they? The cup is worthless, Draco."

Draco slumped back, pouting, but fell silent so Xander returned to his meal in peace.

Until Daphne leaned over, her face barely composed, "Mold in his Shorts?"

Xander shrugged, "I can't remember his real name."

* * *

School let out and the children found their way to the train, breaking off into the small groups of friends that had formed over the school year. Xander found himself sharing a berth with Wednesday, Hermione, Harry, and Ron as they headed back toward Platform Nine and three Quarters. Ron pointedly ignored the 'snake' in the room, while Hermione split her time between her two groups of friends. Wednesday in return ignored Ron as insignificant, save to ask him if he knew how to play 'is there a god?'. That question sent him as far from her as possible, and gave Xander a comfort zone as he talked and joked with Hermione and Harry.

School was out, and despite his initial concerns, Xander had to admit he rather enjoyed the year overall. He wasn't certain what was going to happen for the next year, but it had been cool and he'd learned a lot of neat stuff. In London they disembarked, and milled around until finding their families and minders.

Xander watched as Hermione was met by a pair of nice looking adults and he smiled when introduced, nodding to each. The Weasley family was impossible to miss, unless someone had set fire to the crowd, and Xander snickered as Ron was nearly smothered by his mother. Harry, though, walked off to a fat, red faced man, who looked like he wanted to explode just standing there.

Xander had seen that look before, and felt a cold chill as he watched Harry walk toward it. He was no real friend of Potter's, not really, but they weren't enemies either. He grimaced, "hey Harry!"

Harry paused, turning around, "Yeah?"

"You going to be ok?"

Harry hesitated, but nodded. "Sure."

Xander didn't know what else to say, and could only watch as Harry left with the fat man. He was pulled along into the American group a moment later when the professor from the Salem Institute caught up with him.

"Come along, portkey to Salem in three minutes."

* * *

Back in the states they were given one more class for the year, a short briefing on their rights as Magical Citizens of the Northern Americas.

Xander was somewhat surprised to find that the borders of the magical communities weren't the same as the borders of the Nationalities. In fact, the US, Mexico, and Canada were part of the same Magical 'Government', such as it was. It was really more of a group of departments within the federal governments of each nation, who all more or less agreed to follow the same set of magical rules.

It all sounded horribly complicated, so Xander just focused on what he was allowed to do, which had been broken down into much simpler terms.

He was permitted to use magic at home, but violations of the Magical Secrets Act of 1803 were punished severely, beginning with stiff fines and moving up to forcible relocation to an all magical community until he'd served his sentence. Extreme breaches were punishable under criminal law, which seemed worse.

As a newly active 'Wizarding Home', his parents could apply to be hooked up to the national Floo network, and have wards erected as they chose. His teacher had slipped him a pamphlet on Gringotts USA Warding services, telling him to give it to his parents. Xander just nodded and pocketed the pamphlet, uncertain on whether they could afford anything like that.

Still he was pretty glad to be home and, as far as he could tell, so was Wednesday who was almost hopping with excitement. Well, for her at least.

* * *

"Hey, looking forward to the Summer?" Xander asked, smiling.

"Yes." She replied, her tone flat as she looked over at him. "We haven't played wake the dead in a long time."

"Yeah." Xander didn't really need any more information on that than what he already had. "Well, I've got permission from the teachers to go shopping before they send me home, the local magic district in Sunnydale is supposed to be kinda dangerous."

"Really?" Wednesday asked, sounding interesting. "The Hellmouth sounds very... interesting."

Xander shrugged, "boring to grow up in, but I guess there are things I never saw."

"Indeed."

"Anyway, I want to buy some potions stuff," Xander said.

"Why?"

"I've got some of the twins gag stuff here," Xander grinned, "I want to try and figure out how they made them."

"Ah," Wednesday *almost* smiled. "Enjoy. Would you, perhaps like to visit?"

"Sure, that'd be cool. Are you guys hooking up to the Floo?"

She nodded, "You?"

"I hope so. We have a fireplace, but I don't think it's ever been used." Xander admitted, then looked a little glum. "I hope we can afford it."

Wednesday didn't say anything, merely rubbed the beak of her familiar, "I'll send Odin with our Floo address when it's ready."

"Cool. Thanks." Xander grinned, hefting Fenrir up so the pup could bark at Wednesday and Odin. Oddly the pup had barely grown in the nearly ten months since Xander had picked him up, but Xander wasn't complaining. Fenrir was fun to hold and play with as is. "We'll be seeing each other then, right?"

"Of course."

* * *

The two friends split ways shortly after that, Wednesday being picked up by the family butler. Lurch, not being much of a conversationalist had merely groaned at Xander when he greeted the big guy, then groaned again when Xander and Wednesday exchanged awkward goodbyes.

After that he'd gone out to shop in the Salem District, picking up a small cauldron and a book on identifying magical spells cooked into potions and foodstuffs. The twins had come up with some really cool stuff, and he was really hoping to give them a surprise or two on the off chance they met again.

Salem was apparently ready to accept students again, however, so Xander wasn't counting on seeing the two red heads soon, but he'd see to it that their work lived on in America.

After he was done with shopping, Xander was led to the portkey terminal and sent off in a whirling cyclone for Sunnydale.

Home sweet home.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Sunnydale.

Xander shivered as he made his way up the drive to his home, the feeling of his hometown was like the opposite of Hogwarts. The old castle was cold, drafty, and damp in many ways, but despite all that it seemed to wrap itself around you like a warm hug from your mother. Sunnydale was warm on his skin, the sun beating down in a way that felt incredible compared to the cool Scottish weather he had endured all year, but beneath that, to his magical senses that were now awakened the town froze his blood.

He shook it off, knowing the reason, and forced the chill out as best he could as he opened the door to his home.

"Mom, Dad?" he called out, "I'm home."

He came up short, though, when he found himself face to face with a group of people, most of whom he'd never seen before. His mom and dad were there, but other than them his Uncle Samuel Ruiadri Harris. His Uncle liked his name about as much as Xander liked his middle, though, and generally just called himself Rory, or if a full name was required, Sam Axe. Xander never could figure out where the 'Axe' came from.

Four other people, however, were total strangers to Xander but it was easy enough to identify them as magical. Their sense of dress was just skewed enough to make it clear that they weren't used to keeping up with fashion, though Xander wondered how dumb you had to be to screw up mens fashions, cause as far as he could tell they hadn't really changed much in a few hundred years unless you were a teenager with more money than brains.

His thoughts on the strangers was interrupted when his mother spoke up.

"Alex, honey, these are representatives of your father's and my families."

"Thank you, Jessica," One of the men spoke up, "I'll take it from here. This is Alex is it?"

"Xander, Sir."

"Pardon me?"

"The name, it's Xander." Xander told them, "not Alex. Alexander if you're pissed with me, I guess, but I'm just Xander."

The man raised an eyebrow, then shook his head, "Hardly an appropriate name, young man. Xander is meaningless, Alex and Alexander have a sense of power behind them. They have weight."

"I'm twelve, Sir. I can't carry much weight." Xander replied dryly.

Rory chuckled loudly, earning him a glare that he cheerfully ignored.

The speaker rolled his eyes, staring at Rory, "For goodness sakes, Anthony, why did you invite this fool?"

"Sam is family, Marcus." Tony said stonily, neither warm nor rude in the ways Xander might have expected from his dad. "And really, I don't trust you."

Marcus snorted, "Really, and this *squib* is going to do what to protect you from me?"

"Other than cut your heart out before you can pull that stuck from the hidden holster on your left thigh?" Rory asked idly, a knife appearing in his hand as he calmly used it to pick his fingernails. "Get on with it, Marcus. I've got a date in LA with a hot momma who's gonna want her Lincoln back."

Marcus sighed, eyes not leaving the knife for a moment, then turned back to Xander. "We are here about you, boy."

So much for names, Xander figured, "Oh yeah? What about me?"

"You're a scion of the Harris and Lavelle lines, despite your parents... conditions, that entitles you to a place in the world. With that place comes responsibilities, child. We are here to ensure that you are prepared to meet them."

"Oh lord," Xander groaned, looking over at his mom, "this is more pureblood bullshit, isn't it?"

Rory started laughing again, but his mom and dad flinched, though they both nodded.

"Boy, watch your tongue..."

"Marcus Harrison. Enough."

The room fell silent as one of the two women Xander didn't know rose up and stood across from him, "I am your Great Aunt Jessica Maeve Levalle."

Xander's eyes flickered to his mom, and she nodded slightly. Xander nodded to the woman, remembering his lessons from the book and nodded slightly to the woman, bowing from the waist. "Aunt."

A flicker of a smile passed across her face even as frustrated annoyance marred the expression on Marcus'.

"Very good, child. You understand some of the properties."

Xander shrugged a little, "I was sorted into the unofficial pureblood superiority house at school. It was learn to fit in at least a little, or get a knife in the back."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," His mom said, smiling hesitantly.

Xander smiled a bit, "A bit, mom, most purebloods wouldn't know how to handle a knife."

Rory near split a gut laughing, again drawing irate glares from the Marcus and the other man Xander didn't know. "Sounds about right, kid. You ever want to learn to use a blade in a real fight, just ask."

Xander grinned, much to his mother's disconcertion. Rory had, like many of the squib members of the families, including Tony Harris, joined the service to escape the influence of the families. Unlike Tony, Rory had chosen to make it a career and stayed in for his full twenty, serving fourteen of those years as a SEAL. The idea of him teaching her son how to use a blade was more than a little worrisome.

"Rory, I'll thank you not to give my son bad ideas."

"Sorry, Jess." Rory smirked, then winked at Xander.

Xander just grinned back.

The Lavelle Matriarch just sighed tolerantly, but kept her focus on her young great nephew. "I understand that you've spent the year in Hogwarts."

It wasn't a question, but Xander nodded anyway. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Our family once held a seat on the board there," She said, then glanced back at Marcus and nodded, "both our families did."

Xander hadn't realized that, "Really?"

"Yes. The British branch of the family, arguably the trunk branch really, died out over a century ago for the Lavelle's. I believe that the Harris line ended during the War?" She glanced back, and received a nod from Marcus.

"What, with that Mold in his shorts dude?" Xander asked, eyes rolling up as he wracked his brain to remember the Overlord dude's name. For the life of him he could never quite remember it.

Jessica raised an eyebrow, but easily decoded his meaning. "No. I mean the War. Grindlewald's uprising, and the Second World War."

"Who's Grindlewald?" Xander blinked, suddenly interested. The Second World War had some personal meaning to him, as it had deeply affected Willow's family, and he knew that his Dad had family who had served with the US Forces abroad then.

"Grindlewald was a Dark Wizard, a true Dark Lord in fact, who led an uprising across Europe's Wizarding world. The fallout of his reign of terror spread into the normal world, both directly and indirectly allowing for the rise of Adolf Hitler." She told him seriously, "A great many of the old families were crippled or destroyed then, in the chaos of the aftermath the one calling himself Voldemort rose and inflicted even more damage across the pureblood families. The European trunk lines of many great families were destroyed by those two madmen."

"Whoa." Xander said, nodding dumbly. There was a lot more to the history of the world than he knew, apparently. "Grindlewald was behind the Nazis then?"

"Not precisely, young man," Jessica said, taking her seat again and carefully crossing her legs. "The National Socialist Party were entirely founded by normal humans, however there were several Wizards who pushed it into the direction it went. Don't mistake me, Hitler was hardly a nice person... nor one that I would want in any level of power, but many of the excesses of his followers were not precisely at his command. He fired them up, then unleashed them on Europe. I truly doubt that he ever really imagined what he had done until it was too late to do anything about it. Whether he would have done something to stop it, or not, is lost to history now. Grindlewald and several of his followers took the war machine Hitler had begun to forge and used it to their own ends."

"How?"

"Everyone knows about the six million Jews they killed," Jessica said pensively, "Few, though, even in our world know that they also rounded up over one million squib families, dozens if not hundreds of poor wizarding families who refused to join Grindlewald's forces, and also nearly wiped out the Vampire clans, Veela Enclaves, and many other demi-human communities across Europe. Today, France is the only place in central Europe where you can find any significant Veela population. The underground hid them, you see. Vampires have retaken many of their old haunts, however there are large swathes of Europe where the Lycans still hold sway, notably Paris."

"This is ancient history, Madame Levalle," Marcus muttered, "And entirely over the boys head. You're wasting your time, and ours."

"My time is my own, Marcus Harris, and you are free to leave." She retorted icily.

Marcus grimaced, glaring at her, then abruptly rose up. "I've had enough. The boy is obviously unfit to take on family responsibilities. I will reconsider him when he graduates. Good day, Anthony."

Ignoring everyone else, Marcus and one of the women that Xander had not been introduced to, left in a huff as Rory snorted.

"Good riddance you old bastard."

"Rory!" Jessica Harris snapped.

"Sorry, Jess." He gave her a lopsided grin. "You know I can't stand the folks."

Jessica Lavelle stayed silent for a long moment, then rose. "For the moment, I have to concur with Marcus, Jessica. Teach him of the family history, I will speak with the boy again before he begins the new school year."

"Yes, Lady Lavelle."

Xander raised an eyebrow as Jessica Lavelle swept out of the house, her motions as graceful as Marcus' had been abrupt.

"That was fun," Rory smirked.

"You don't have to wind him up like that, Rory." Tony said, sighing tiredly. "You know Marcus is a bit of a stick."

"He's a bit of a stick like I'm a 'bit' of a womanizer." Rory retorted. "He's the stick up the families ass, and you know it, Tony. Why you let him come here at all is beyond me."

"The family asked." Tony responded, then burst out, "Damn it, Rory, it's the first communication we've had with the family in over thirty years! Don't you miss it? Any of it?"

"Of course I do, you know that," Rory responded, irritated. "Walking away from the magic, even for a squib, is like cutting your own heart out. But I did it, and I'm done with it. I'm not going back, Tony. You shouldn't either."

Tony just sighed and said nothing in response.

* * *

Xander was arranging his room a little later when Rory knocked at the door.

"Hey kid, mind if I come in?"

"Sure, Uncle Rory."

"Call me, Sam, kid." The retired Navy man grinned, "You survived the family gauntlet down there, you deserve the use of my name."

Xander grinned, "thanks, Sam."

"So how was school?"

"Was ok..." Xander said hesitantly.

Sam chuckled, "You loved it, right?"

Xander smiled slowly, "Yeah."

The older man nodded, "Yeah, I still remember magic, kid. It's a whole other world, though I've seen enough of the normal world to know that there's some amazing stuff here too."

Xander nodded, though he wasn't really sure what Sam was talking about.

"Don't forget the real world, kid. Magic is fun and really damned awesome, but the world the families live in is really small too." Sam told him seriously. "Learn to live in both, and you'll love life a lot more."

Xander nodded, "I will."

Sam smiled, then moved to leave but was stopped when Xander spoke up.

"Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"You serious about showing me how to use a knife?"

Sam eyed him for a minute, "You're not planning on killing a schoolmate, are ya?"

Xander chuckled, but shook his head, "No, it just sounds cool."

Sam hesitated a bit, considering, "not a real good reason, kid, but in this town it may not be a bad idea. They told you about Sunnydale, right?"

"Yeah," Xander frowned, "If it's so dangerous, though, how come my parents moved here?"

"Land's dirt cheap, lots of ways to make a buck, and your folks are both squibs."

Xander looked confused, "huh?"

"Squibs, you know what they are, right?"

"Sure, non-magical people born to magical families, right?"

Sam shook his head, "Naw, kid. Squibs are *low* magical people born to magical families. Your mom and dad both have some magic, just not enough to cast spells. They've got full internal stores, though, and that makes them just about as tough as you are."

Xander blinked.

"You never noticed that it takes one hell of a wack to seriously hurt you?" The Navy man asked, chuckling.

"I never thought about it," Xander confessed.

"Well, trust me, you're tough. Your magic will heal you fast too, given a chance, and you even put out a low level defense against most supernatural types." Sam told him, then waved a hand, "Don't get me wrong, kid. It won't stop a vamp or much else, but it will encourage them to look for another meal, given the option. Squibs are the same, so your folk are pretty safe from most of the trash around here."

"Oh." Xander nodded, considering. It made sense, given what he'd seen in school. Hell, Harry alone offered enough proof on that matter, come to think of it. He should have been killed for a couple of the stunts he pulled on the Quidditch pitch alone.

"Yeah, that's why a lot of us, Squibs that is, join the forces." Sam said, "We're tough, strong, and hard to kill. Plus the military is a good way for a kid who's never lived in the normal world to ease into it. When you start in the service they tell you how to do EVERYTHING. Right down to how to properly soap your ass, if you get the right... or maybe that's wrong, Instructors."

"That makes sense."

"Anyway, I'll show you a few tricks, and hang around town a bit to give you some pointers on the night life, k kid?"

"Sure, thanks Sam."

"No problem," Sam told him, "but not tonight. Tonight I have a date."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander spent the rest of the night settling in and getting permission to use the basement for some of the homework and potions projects he'd decided on for the summer. He couldn't practice some of the defense spellwork down there, at least not until he was at a higher level and could reinforce the basement with some structural charms, but it was perfect for most everything else.

His dad helped him clear it all out, and Xander found himself enjoying the time spent with the old man for the first time in a long time. He hadn't realized just how much of the bitterness his father had shown throughout his life had been aimed at the family who had abandoned him, or passively forced him out. The way they treated people left a lot to be desired, in Xander's opinion, and he privately swore he wouldn't do that to anyone.

The next day Xander set out early, heading for Jessie's place first.

"Hello, Mrs. McNally, is..."

"XAN!"

"Jes!" Xander grinned, ducking under the sweep of his friend's arm and coming up behind him. He gave Jessie a light push, sending him stumbling out onto the doorstep, then closed the door.

"As I was saying, Mrs. McNally, is breakfast ready?" Xander asked with a wide grin as Jessie started hammering on the door.

Sarah McNally chuckled, but shook her head, "You just missed it."

"Nuts." Xander snapped his fingers, stepping clear of the door.

Jessie scowled at him as he let himself back in, "So not funny."

"Was pretty funny on this side of the door." Xander countered.

"True."

"MOM!" Jessie howled, "Don't encourage him, alright!?"

"How have things been, man?" Xander asked after the laughter died down.

"Boring!" Jessie complained, "Without you, Willow is out of control!"

Xander blinked, "Are we talking about the same girl? Red head, timid, scared to say boo?"

"Except when it comes to study!" Jessie countered, "She's insane, Xan!"

"Jessie's grade went up over ten percent across the board," Sarah interjected proudly from the kitchen.

"MOM!"

Xander chuckled, "Well, you know in that case, I met another girl just like Willow. If you want I could introduce them and..."

Jessie paled, looking horrified, "Don't you DARE!"

Xander found himself again laughing at his friend, "Relax, I doubt that Hermione is going to come over here from England just to drive you nuts."

"Alright, alright, you got me again. So come on, dude, how was it?"

"School was pretty cool, actually." Xander answered, wanting to say more, but knowing he couldn't. Jessie didn't know about magic, and the law said it had to stay that way. Willow knew, at least some, so he could talk to her about it, Xander figured, but even there he knew he had to be careful. "Scotland is bloody cold, though, let me tell you."

"Bloody?" Jessie smirked. "You sound all British."

Xander rolled his eyes, "You try living with a bunch of em all winter and not have some bad habits sink in."

"I'm sure it was a great educational experience," Sarah said as she reappeared with a tray of cookies and a pitcher of milk. "Here you go boys, enjoy."

"Thanks, Mrs. M." Xander grinned, grabbing a glass and a couple cookies. "You have no idea how much I've been craving milk."

The two looked at him oddly.

"They don't have milk in Scotland?" Jessie asked, skeptical.

"They do, but it doesn't taste the same, and really pumpkin juice is way more popular," Xander shivered a bit. "It's not bad, I guess, but it got kinda sickening real quick."

"Pumpkin juice? Oh gross." Jessie made a face.

"Jessie! Don't judge other people like that, you weren't the one over there."

"But mom! Pumpkin juice!"

Sarah McNally sighed, shaking her head. "Eat your cookies then get outside and blow the skink off you, but be back for dinner! Xander would you like to eat here?"

"Sure, thanks Mrs. M, I'll let mom and dad know."

She smiled nodding at the young man, then went back to her daily activities as the two boys made short work of the snack before heading out.

* * *

"Oh my GOD! Xander!" Willow squeaked, staring in surprise. "You're back!"

"So I am!" Xander grinned, "good to see ya, wills."

Willow abruptly stopped smiling and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"That's for no phone calls, no letters, no..."

"Hey, chill..." Xander held up his hands, placating her, "No phone there, Wills, and the place is like, really isolated."

Willow's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Really."

Jessie frowned, "Man, no phone? That's nuts."

"No TV either man." Xander said, sighing theatrically.

Jessie stared at him in undisguised horror. "Oh God, you're not going back, right? Tell me you're not going back!"

Xander grinned, "probably not. But there's a school on the east coast that I might be going to."

Jessie sighed, wiping his brow in mock relief, "At least they will have TV. No way there's a place in the states that sick."

"Not having TV is NOT sick," Willow lectured, "It probably results in better grades..."

"And a lot of practical jokes." Xander added.

"There, see... wait, what!?"

"Trust me, bored people with time on the hands in an old Scottish castle equals some really nasty gags," Xander grinned, "I think TV would distract some of em."

Willow glared at Jessie, then sighed and smiled at Xander. "It's good to see you back, Xander."

Xander grinned back, then hugged her, "It's great to be back and see you."

He looked over at Jessie and pulled him into a one armed hug that rapidly turned into a headlock.

"Both of you."

"Hey! Let me go!"

* * *

The vacation was off to a great start as far as Xander was concerned, even if he didn't get any work done for the first few days as nearly every waking moment was spent with Jesse and Willow. By the end of the week, though, he was squeezing in a couple hours here and there to practice his magic and work on the potions project he had set himself. Hopefully he'd have some stuff to surprise the twins with, if he ever saw them again.

Willow had surprised him by sitting in on many of these study sessions, mostly cause Xander never really considered them studying and he could distinctly remember that Willow often ducked out of anything he considered fun in order to study. She was, however, fascinated by what he had learned and he showed her a lot of the basics.

Unfortunately she didn't match well with his wand, and with none of her own there wasn't much she could do until she found him working diligently on his private potions project one day.

"What's this?"

"Potions." Xander said, carefully cutting up some of the supplies he'd bought in Salem. "I'm trying to figure out how the Twins made these things."

"What things?"

"Huh? Oh," Xander nodded to the pile of candies and such the twins had taken to spiking his food with at the end of the year. "Those. They're spells in food form. You eat one and all kinds of weird things can happen."

"Like?"

"Like body transfiguration, delay cast charms, some jinxes and even a hex or two." Xander said, "There's one there the twins call Ton Tongue Toffee, for example, it makes your tongue grow so big it rolls out of your mouth and across the table."

"Ew! That... so wrong."

Xander shrugged, "That's the twins. They're twisted, but pretty brilliant."

"So how are you working out what's in them?" Willow leaned over his shoulder.

"I got an identification spell from my journal," Xander said, "and I've been trying to break down the results. Here, see?"

He showed her a page of notes he'd made, and Willow read it with a scrunched up face as she tried to work out what it all meant.

"This is just colors and stuff." She said finally.

Xander nodded glumly, "Wizards haven't moved into the digital age yet, Wills. Identification spells are all based on auras, and you have to interpret what they mean."

Willow looked around, "Do you have references?"

Xander grinned and nodded to the small bookshelf he'd setup, "Yeah, there's a book there on basic aura reading and common spell components."

Willow grabbed the book instantly as Xander turned back to his work, "I think the twins have worked to disguise their work, though... either that or they're using some really rare components, cause some of the auras don't match up."

"Ummm hmmm..." Willow mumbled from where she was reading, already oblivious to him. Xander just smiled and turned back to his potions experiment, laughing internally at his redheaded friend.

* * *

A few days after that, while coming back from a movie with Jessie and Willow, the three of them were treated to an odd sight.

"Dude. Check out your dog."

Xander turned to see where Fenrir was running around his yard, being dive bombed by a raven. The black bird would swoop in, let out a loud caw, then Fenrir would leap up almost five feet in the air as he took a swipe at the bird.

"I didn't know a dog that small could jump that high." Jessie said in wonder.

Xander just grinned, "Odin!"

The two looked at him like he was nuts, but the raven broke off from its play and zeroed in on Xander instantly.

"Dude!" Jessie ducked away as Willow too squeaked and dropped to a crouch.

Odin swooped around, settling in on Xander shoulder with a triumphant caw, its eyes gleaming as he watched Fenrir run up. Xander chuckled at his two friends.

"Relax guys, this is Odin. He belongs to a friend from school, she trained him as a passenger pigeon of sorts."

Jessie slowly straightened up, eyeing the bird with awe, "He came from SCOTLAND?"

Xander laughed, "No, she's from the States, out on the East Coast."

"Still, X, man, you mean to tell me he flew across the *country*?"

Xander nodded, fishing some theatre snacks he'd saved for Fenrir from his pocket and offering them to the bird. "Here you go, boy. Let's see what you've got for me."

Odin patiently let him take the note, then cocked his head questioningly and cawed once.

Xander checked the note briefly, and shook his head, "It's cool, I don't need to send an answer. I'll call her later."

Odin cawed loudly, then jumped clear and flew off.

"Man." Jessie breathed, "That is one well trained bird."

* * *

As soon as Jessie and Willow left for the evening, Xander went straight to the fireplace. They'd managed to get the Floo hooked up, but it was for communication only. He lit it with a barbeque lighter that was there and tossed the Floo powder into the flames.

It flashed bright green as Xander called, "Number One, Cemetery Lane."

Across the country, in an old and decrepit looking home, the fireplace roared to life and exploded out into the living room. When a face appeared in it shortly thereafter, no one deemed it remarkable and Lurch walked slowly over and groaned.

"Hey Lurch," Xander grinned, "Is Wednesday around?"

Lurch moaned again, then nodded and turned away.

"Cool. I guess I'll just wait then." Xander grinned.

"Alex, my boy," Gomez grinned as he approached, "How are things out in... Sunny California?"

Xander grinned as the dapper man shivered as he said those last two words. "Oh, you know sir, nothing like a Hellmouth to keep things interesting."

"Hellmouth?" Gomez leaned forward, "You don't say? Wednesday didn't mention Sunnydale."

"You've been here, Sir?"

"Fourth honeymoon, young man," Gomez smiled, puffing on his cigar. "Lovely time. It's just too bad about all those Sabbat breeds, distasteful creatures, those. No sense of soul, you know?"

"Not really, but I'm learning, Sir."

"Ah, excellent."

"Hello, Xander."

The two twisted, looking around to see Wednesday approaching. Gomez smiled and rose up, "Well I'll see you another time then, my boy. Enjoy your chat."

"Wednesday." Xander said, his tone almost matching hers, then he grinned wide. "Good to see you."

"And you as well." She replied, "I see Odin made it to you with no problems."

"He's on his way back now," Xander said, "Sorry I couldn't send him back through the Floo, but our connection doesn't handle transport. Costs too much, and I guess it has to be warded heavily for security, and those cost a lot too."

"That's fine. Odin is a perfectly capable bird." Wednesday said, "He'll be fine."

Xander nodded in agreement, "Oh hey, our address is Sunnydale Harris Home."

"I will remember. How have your holidays been?"

"Pretty good, been working on my potions project, and getting some practice in too. You?"

"Much the same, Gram mama is helping me with potions, though."

"Cool. Hey, can you ask her how to identify potions ingredients? The twins seem to have obscured their work," Xander griped.

"I will ask," Wednesday promised, and the talk quickly moved along into other subjects, including what each family was up to. Xander decided that whatever else was true about the Addamses they knew how to have an interesting time.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander's summer holidays quickly settled into a routine, between spending time with Jessie and Willow and working on his magic he didn't have time for much else. He was forced to make time, however, when Sam came back to make good on his promise, which he eagerly did.

Well, Xander was eager until the training Sam offered him consisted of exercise and lots of it. Sam just smirked, stole a beer from Tony, and settled in to watch as Xander sweated through the calisthenics.

"Tell you what, kid," He called once after Xander whined about this not being what he'd asked for, "you get through the whole routine without dying on me, or puffing like a freight train, then we'll start with some fighting basics, deal?"

Xander glared at him, but Sam only laughed and went back to sipping his beer as Tony came out and joined him as they watched Xander groan through the paces Sam had set for him.

So things quickly broke down into a set series of patterns that Xander rather enjoyed, and the summer became one of the best of his life. He, Willow, and Jessie roared through Sunnydale, doing all kinds of things that he never really got around to with them before. The normal stuff too, like movies and parties, but they often just found themselves out on the cliffs looking over the ocean for long hours as they talked about the past year and just simply reaffirmed their friendship.

Then he would spend time with his magic, sometimes plotting to nail the twins even if he had to do it from across the ocean, sometimes just reading ahead in his workbooks. Wanting to do homework was a new experience to Xander, but from what he had found at Hogwarts it was common to muggle born and raised. The very idea of doing magic was just so awesome they HAD to do as much as they could.

The pureblood students had a lead on them, but one thing every muggle-born had over their pureblooded brethren was that they enjoyed trying to catch up. What was old and dull to the magically raised was awesome and incredible to Xander and those like him.

So he read ahead, and practiced some stuff from the second year books while his potions brewed. At the same time, Willow spent long hours over in the basement with him, buried in a book and asking questions that forced Xander to review everything he'd learned. In turn, he found it all the easier to move ahead with the past years work fresh in his mind.

He and Willow both wished they could tell Jessie, though, keeping the secret of magic from him was complicated and made things harder on all of them. If Xander had to do it for more than the summer, he doubted he'd be able to manage.

Through it all he kept careful notes and continued to work in the Coven Journal.

* * *

Narcissa shook her head, amazed at the work being run through the journal. She wished that Draco would spend as much time on learning magic as this one did. Lily was the same, though, she remembered idly. When she was spending time doing all sorts of inconsequential things, Lily Evans had been absorbing everything she could about magic and it's practice.

How often had that happened, Narcissa wondered idly. Lily had started fast, it had been obvious from nearly her first day that she was bright, but just how bright wasn't evident until her fourth or fifth year. By Seventh year, well it had been a forgone conclusion that the little muggle-born girl would be Head Girl.

There was a drive there, that Narcissa would have expected in Slytherin or, at least, Ravenclaw. What made her a Gryffindor would forever be a puzzle. Still, Lily hadn't been the first muggle-born to take that position, nor the last. Indeed, if she was reading correctly between the lines in Draco's ranting, there was a young Miss Granger who was well on her way to being the latest.

There was a certain... love, no, not love. A Lust for magic that the muggle-born seemed to have, Narcissa supposed. This all-consuming infatuation that would eventually die down to a lifelong love similar to that which Narcissa herself held with the magic of her life.

The pale wife of Lucius Malfoy sighed, remembering the envy she had held for her muggle-born friend during their school years, then went back to working on the journal. She truly enjoyed this diversion from her daily life, this young man was a fresh wind blowing through her life. She only wished that her fellow coven founders were still around to offer their points of view and enjoy it alongside her.

* * *

The worst day of the summer happened right around halfway through the holidays while Xander was working on his attempt at rebrewing the twins' ton tongue toffee. He could have sworn he had it right, but when he tested it on himself nothing seemed to happen.

Resigned to another failure Xander had started to pack things away when he felt a tightness in his pants and began to fidget.

"Xander?" Willow frowned, noticing his grimace. "Are you ok?"

"Pass me the antidote we brewed..."

"Why? It didn't work...?"

"Willow! Just pass me the antidote!" Xander snapped, grabbing at the crotch of his pants as he tried not to be obvious about it.

Willow, puzzled, quickly handed it across to him and he drank it down but unfortunately found that it had no effect. "Xander, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing." Xander lied. He shifted again, managing to maneuver himself to his jeans weren't threatening to crush the affected part of his anatomy. "I, uh, need to go and do... something."

Willow blinked, confused, but before she could say anything Xander got up and bolted for the stairs out of the basement, only to run dead into his uncle as Sam came down the stairs.

"Hey, whoa kid, where's the fire!?"

In my PANTS, Xander snarled internally, glaring at his uncle. "Nowhere, just need to go upstairs."

"Kid?" Sam blinked as Xander pushed past him.

Willow just shrugged when Sam looked to her for an explanation, so he decided to follow and see what was up. Upstairs he found Xander in the hallway, fighting with his pants.

"Uh... kid?" Sam asked hesitantly, then he noticed the bulge in the kids jeans and started to wonder just what he and the redhead had been up to. "You know kid, maybe it's time for you and your old man to have the talk..."

"What?" Xander stared at him for a moment, then grimaced, "Ow! God, Uncle Rory give me a hand here!"

"Hey kid, that ain't even legal in Tennessee." Rory held up his hands.

"What are you... ahhh..." Xander sighed as his pants came loose and he relaxed a bit, "God that sucked. Stupid potion."

"Potion?" Sam blinked, "Uh... that was caused by a potion?"

Xander nodded, face reddening, "Yeah. God, what if Willow had seen me!? Oh man, this is so humiliating!"

Sam eyed the kids crotch for a moment before realizing what he was doing and shook himself clear, "Uh... how long does it last?"

Xander blinked, "I dunno, why?"

"Just curious, kid." Sam said, thinking hard about the potential benefits. "You got any left?"

Xander slumped in a sofa chair, his zipped now undone as his underwear tended through the split. "Why!?"

"I've got a date tonight, kid." Sam grinned.

Xander groaned a little shifting again for comfort, then looked at Sam oddly. "Yeah, sure I guess. It's down in the cauldron. Just get it from Willow, I think I'm gonna spend the day in bed."

* * *

Xander quickly put that humiliation out of his thoughts and, after the effects of the potion went down, literally, a few hours later he vowed to never test potions on himself again. The twins had the right idea, in his opinion. Get some suckers to do it.

In the meantime, though, he refocused on just enjoying his vacation time.

Well until his dad came to him one day and said that Sam had suggested they have 'The Talk'. After an hour that quickly became the second most humiliating thing that happened to him that summer, Xander escaped with pretty much no dignity left and a vow to NEVER tell anyone about those events as long as he lived.

As the end of July came, Xander was surprised to come upstairs one morning to find Miss Berkeley speaking with his parents.

"Ah, hello, it's been a year, hasn't it, Alexander?"

"Ah, I guess so, yes."

"Tell me, how was your time at Hogwarts?"

Xander shrugged, "Was ok I guess."

The scholastic recruiter smiled, "I think it was a little better than ok, you did quite well actually. Not top in your classes, but usually within the top twenty, which is quite respectable."

Xander smiled, "Well I learned the trick to that here."

"Oh?"

"Find the smartest girls in school and hang around them," Xander grinned.

Elizabeth Berkeley smiled widely, "That sounds like an excellent plan. I was just speaking with your parents about your options for this year."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, The Salem Institute has reopened its doors to new students, though space is still at a premium due to the volcano..."

"Yeah, I remember." Xander smirked, "Has it kept growing?"

"Quite." Elizabeth nodded, then sighed, "To be honest it's been a nightmare. We still haven't worked out what those students were working on, and if we could we would certainly ban it in the future."

The woman sighed, then shook her head, "At any rate, you have a place in Salem, of course... also, home schooling remains an option, and I am pleased to say that we have decided to encourage an ongoing scholastic exchange."

"You mean we can keep going to other schools if we want?" Xander asked, interested.

She nodded, "yes, though there are some restrictions."

"What kind?" Jessica asked, leaning forward.

"While Hogwarts and it's sibling schools in Europe are well known for high standards in scholastic pursuits, there are several courses they do not offer that are highly encouraged in Salem." Berkeley stated, "American Wizarding History, for one. Chemistry, Physics, Biology. These are core courses in the normal world, but only electives at Salem. Still, they have become increasingly more important as technological advances begin to match, and in places outstrip, magical alternatives."

"What are you suggesting then?"

"These are mostly introductory courses, because magic is taught so young, they basically amount to prep courses in case Alex here may wish to pursue them further after he graduates." She explained, "So we're considering offering a tutor to help balance the Old World education and atmosphere with some of our own new world curriculum."

"That sounds pretty cool," Xander said.

"We'll have to discuss it," Jessica said, frowning, wondering about her son being so far from home yet again, and possibly remaining there for several years, barring holidays.

"Of course, just contact me within a week or so?"

Jessica nodded in agreement, and Elizabeth rose and said a few parting pleasantries before leaving.

"So, Alex, what do you think?"

Xander frowned, considering, "I don't know. Hogwarts is cool, and I had a lot of fun..."

"And got pretty good grades too," Jessica said, looking at his report, "I'm impressed, Alex, this is a big improvement."

Xander flushed, but nodded as he smiled, "Thanks mom."

"Now though, this is a big decision."

Xander nodded in agreement, "yeah."

"Did you make any friends?"

"Sure, Mom, Hermione and Wednesday are great."

"And will they be at Hogwarts?"

Xander paused, "Well Hermione will be."

"What about this Wednesday?"

"I don't know, she's like me, Mom."

"Is she the one you talk to over the Floo every few days?" Jessica smiled.

Xander nodded.

"Well go check with her then, see what she's thinking about doing."

Xander nodded in agreement, "Thanks Mom."

* * *

#1 Cemetery Lane.

The explosion of the Floo flame startled the Addams clan for only a moment before Wednesday ran up to the fireplace and actually smiled a little.

"Hello, Alexander."

"Hey Wednesday," Xander's flaming image grinned back, "You get a messenger from the school?"

"He's still here." Wednesday said, taking her normal seat. "He and father are speaking about the options available to us now."

"Mine left, has he talked about the exchange program?"

She nodded.

"Any idea what you're going to do?"

"I believe I would like to return." Wednesday said after a moment, "I believe that it may be important."

Xander raised a flaming eyebrow, "Oh? Are you a seer or something?"

"No, but the family blood often exerts an influence."

"Watch it," Xander smirked, "You're starting to sound like some of the purebloods."

Wednesday arched a brow in return, unsmiling as she responded, "Please. The Addams bloodline is a carefully monitored integration of all blood traits. Those stagnant families are nothing compared to mine."

Xander's fiery image threw up his hands, "Whoa, ok, I give. Just saying."

"At any rate, father is discussing the matter now."

Xander nodded, then grinned as he heard Gomez yell something about a donation in the background. "What was that?"

"I believe that father is offering to pay for our tutor." Wednesday said with a smirk.

Xander rolled his eyes, knowing from the past Christmas just what Gomez could be like. "So you're going back?"

Wednesday looked at the burning image of her friend, considering the question. She had a distinct feeling that it was important for her to be in Scotland, for the moment at least. She also thought that it was likely important that she and Xander remain close, but she didn't know why. Should she convince him to go back? The question bothered her, as she didn't have all the information for herself. Did he even like it there?

He hadn't been unhappy, she didn't think, but perhaps Xander wanted to go to Salem. Should she try and convince him otherwise?

Wednesday took a breath.

"I am." She said, "And you?"

"I'm not sure," Xander said seriously, "I need to talk it over with my mom and dad."

"Do so." She said, then smiled ever so slightly. "If you choose not to, write me."

"Count on it."

Xander's image vanished then, and Wednesday stared at the empty fireplace for a long moment.

No.

His will was his own, he would make his choice as she made hers.

Come what may, she was an Addams and not some pawn of destiny.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander was torn, actually, concerning the coming year. Returning to Hogwarts wasn't really something he had looked forward to, though he did have brief flashes where he considered a given. Moments where he thought about studying with Wednesday and Hermione, nailing the twins to the wall, maybe even talking more with Daphne about pureblood politics.

The journal rested on the bed beside, and he realized that it too was a sign that he had expected to return, on some level. Of course, what else could he expect? He didn't know Salem, had no clue about any other school for magic THAN Hogwarts. To some degree, he supposed, he'd never really considered going elsewhere.

He took a breath and nodded. He supposed that was settled then.

* * *

"You want to go back?" Jessica asked softly.

"Yeah, Mom," Xander smiled, "I've got some friends there, and Wednesday is going back too."

"I'll call Miss Berkeley."

"Thanks."

Xander found himself feeling nervous again, just like last year when he was getting ready to go, but this time found the sensation to be a bit more thrilling than frightening. He was going to learn more magic, it just didn't get any cooler than that, unless you counted the fact that he got to do it with friends.

If course he was leaving Wills and Jessie again, and that really sucked, but they'd have a great summer and another one next year. He wished that Willow's parents had let her attend magical school, but then Jessie would be alone and that wasn't cool either.

There were so many things he wished were different, but the world didn't respond to wishes and he'd learned a while ago that making them was futile. Oddly, though, after he'd given up wishing for things, some of them started coming true. He was magical, special, that was an old one, a wish he'd had since he was old enough to read comics. Every kid wanted to be superman or Spiderman, or something, and he got to live the dream. A more important dream, one where his parents got along a bit better, seemed to be coming true too. His dad didn't drink so much now, and his mom seemed more... here than she had before.

He wasn't sure it was something that would hold, but in the meantime he had to admit that it felt pretty good to think of his parents as a combo rather than two separate individuals.

The rest of Xander's summer proceeded at an ever increasing pace, making him feel like he was riding an accelerating train. The days flashed by, crammed with everything he could think of doing with his friends before he had to leave them, but it wasn't long before he could see the end of summer looming and knew that their time was short.

Oddly, his Uncle had taken a bit more of an interest in Xander's magic work in addition to his physical training, which resulted in a strange conversation toward the end of the holidays.

* * *

"Hey kid, what are you up to?" Sam asked nonchalantly, leaning against the stairwell as he watched Xander practice.

"Pretty good, I think I've got this 'Protego' shield charm almost right." Xander said, demonstrating the spell with a powerful shout of 'Protego!'.

The shield shimmered into existence between them, an iridescent bubble that slowly firmed up as Xander focused on it.

"Neat," Sam said, pulling his keys from his pocket and whipping them at Xander.

Xander jumped, the shield flickered and burst like a bubble as the keys struck it then went on to bounce off his forehead.

"Ow!"

"Stay focused kid," Sam said, walking into the room. "A shield is no good if you can't keep it up."

Xander rubbed his forehead, glaring at his uncle. "Yeah, yeah. Jeez, did you have to throw them so hard?"

"No," Sam answered, then smiled, "I wanted to."

Xander grumbled, but went back to work.

"They teach you shielding spells in first year?" Sam asked, looking over the book Xander was working out of.

"Nah, I think it's like fourth or fifth year, but it's COOL." Xander grinned, "hard as it is to believe, I'm doing homework I don't have to do yet."

"I think that one might be a bit ahead of you, kid." Sam chuckled, shaking his head. "Just remember what I said about magic, ok kid?"

Xander nodded seriously.

"And, on that note, I was wondering kid... can you make any more of that potion I borrowed?" Sam asked, his expression hopeful.

"Why?" Xander blurted, then remembered 'the talk' with his dad and shivered, "You know what, never mind. I don't want to know. Uh, yeah, I kept notes so I wouldn't try the same thing twice..."

Xander picked up his potions journal and frowned, flipping through the pages until he found the one marked as 'utter failure, do NOT mix again' and handed the journal over to Sam. "That one, copy it if you want, but leave the original there. I don't want to accidentally mix that again."

"Sure, sure, kid," Sam said, pulling out a pen. "Whatever you say."

Sam then ignored Xander as he went back to practice his spells, preferring to focus on copying the page contents as perfectly as possible.

* * *

"Hey bro!" Jessie called as he and Willow came into the house.

"Guys," Xander grinned, "I thought we were meeting up later?"

"We thought we'd have a little celebration, dude, we did miss your birthday you know."

Xander smiled hesitantly, "That's ok, guys, I mean I wasn't here."

Willow ducked her head, "We wanted to."

"Come in," Jessica said, coming into the room with a big cake, surprising Xander. "Is everyone hungry?"

"Yes ma'am!" Jessie grinned, bolting for the table.

Xander looked around, a little lost, but Willow tugged him to the table and he followed willingly.

"Guys, Mom, I don't know what to say... thanks."

"Looks like you figured it out easy enough," Jessie grinned.

Xander grinned in response as Willow stepped to his side and pushed something into his hands.

"What's this?"

"What's a party without presents?" Jessie asked from the other side of the table, a big slice of cake halfway to his mouth.

Xander glanced at Willow, who had reverted to her shy self.

"It's not much or anything, I just... kinda thought it would come in handy."

Xander grinned, then opened the package. He was surprised when he saw the lovely pen set inside a hardwood box, both because it was a rather elegant style that he'd never seen before, but also because of how much he actually appreciated it. A year ago, he knew, he would be disappointed not to have a toy or something similar.

"I told her we should get you a TV or something, but she insisted," Jessie apologized from across the table.

"It's ok isn't it?" Willow asked, her voice suddenly worried. "I mean, it's not disappointing to you or anything, right?"

"Willow." Xander said softly, cutting her off. "It's great. Thank you."

Willow beamed at him, "It's a really fancy fountain pen, so you might have some trouble at first, but I thought, you know, with what you told me about the school it might kinda fit in."

Xander blinked, pulling the silver pen out and looking at it carefully. Willow was right, actually, the nib of the pen looked very much like the quills they used at school. Some of the muggle-born kids had the foresight to bring ballpoint pens with them, especially the older years, but such things were frowned on by many of the teachers. Snape, especially detested them and wouldn't grade any work done with one.

He experimentally scratched out his name on the wrapping paper and was both shocked and pleased to see it write almost exactly like the quills, only much smoother and easier to work with. He mentally compared it to how quill work looked and was pretty sure it was almost identical.

"This is perfect!" he blurted, gleefully examining the pen closer, and noticing several refill cartridges.

"There's a book on calligraphy too," Willow said helpfully.

"Oh, just brilliant, Wills, Jess... it's great!"

"Careful, your inner nerd AND inner brit is showing, dude." Jessie said, mock mournfully, "My best pal, lost to the whims of the nerdy British. It's horrible."

"Yuck it up, smart guy," Xander scowled playfully at his pal.

"I will," Jessie grinned.

Xander grinned then, and looked at his two best friends on this side of the Rockies. "Thanks guys. You're the best."

* * *

After the impromptu party, the trio went out to the movies and spent the rest of the evening in the Bronze. Despite all the warnings he'd had about the dangers of the hellmouth, Xander had yet to see a vampire and he was actually a little disappointed, though not by too much. Even Gomez Addams had referred to the local vamps as 'Distasteful', which either meant they were sun loving pacifists, or seriously freaking scary.

Given the fact that they were, after all, Vampires, Xander figured for number two. He'd already wrung a promise out of Willow to not go out alone or with someone she didn't know, and to make sure Jessie did the same. His parents and Sam had also said they'd keep an eye on the duo, but Xander was seriously going to break the law just as soon as he could provide some good proof to Jessie and get away with it.

Sam had told him that most vamps don't grab younger kids, though, cause it attracted too much attention. Xander had felt better after that, but Sam had then gone on to say that in Sunnydale the attention tended to die out pretty quick, and that teens were considered primo targets cause of how often the run away.

Xander figured that he had a couple years, tops, to figure out a way to break it to Jessie without getting himself in deep with the Magical Law Enforcement types.

He would worry about it more, except that he'd been looking every time they were out after dark, and the town seemed dead at night. If it wasn't for everyone agreeing, Xander would think they were pulling a joke on him or something.

As it was he just pushed it aside, and trusted that everything was under control. After all, if the vamps and dangerous types weren't anywhere to be seen, it should be pretty safe.

Right?

* * *

"Xander, you're port key is here!"

Xander clomped down the stairs, running over to where his mother was taking a letter from a post owl and grinned. "When's it set for?"

She checked the note, and one eyebrow went up. "Five minutes. Lord they cut things close, don't they?"

"I've got my stuff, mom." Xander grabbed the handle of his school truck to show that he was serious, and reached out for the key.

The portkey turned out to be an actual key, he found as his mother handed it to him and Xander examined it for a moment curiously. "Looks kinda beat up."

Jessica smirked slightly, "Wizards like to use old things for portkeys, it cuts down on the odds of the wrong person picking it up. They probably got this out of a lost and found tray."

Xander chuckled, and his mother gave him a quick hug.

"Behave at school, try not to get into too much trouble, and don't forget you're Great Aunt Lavelle is going to meet you at Salem for a chat. Be polite."

"I will, mom." Xander promised.

Jessica pulled back, checking her watch. "Almost time, hon. I'm going to miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you and Dad too, Mom," Xander said, just a tiny bit surprised that he was telling the truth.

"Are you coming home for the holidays this time?"

"I... I don't know yet. I'll let you know, ok?" Xander asked hopefully.

Jessica smiled softly, "Alright."

Xander started to say something else when he felt a tug at his navel, and the world whirled around him, and he was gone.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander's arrival in Salem ended with him on his backside in the office of the Dean, staring up at the bemused faces looking down at him and flushing in embarrassment.

"Sorry," He said, climbing to his feet. "I can't seem to get the hang of those things."

"No need for apologies," Said an old man who reminded Xander a lot of Dumbledore, though with a little less insanity showing through. "I believe I was in my forties before I learned to land properly from a portkey, though they were a tad rougher back then."

The two other people in the office smiled slightly, and Xander recognized one of them as his great Aunt and quickly bowed to them both.

"Well, a polite young man as well," The old man said, smiling. "I'm Arthur Fitzpatrick, young Mr. Harris, Dean of Salem Academy for the Magical Arts."

Xander blinked, then turned and bowed slightly to him as well. "Pleased to meet you, Sir."

"And you, young man. I regret that you have chosen to school yourself elsewhere, I think you would have been a fine addition to the campus." Arthur said, smiling widely. "Now, we gathered here to speak of how things will work on this exchange program, if you're amenable?"

Xander blinked, not actually knowing what the word meant, but decided to agree anyway just based on context. "Yes sir, of course."

"Excellent," Arthur smiled again, then nodded to the man Xander didn't recognize.

"I am Professor Hardy," The hawk faced man said, "I've been assigned to liaise between Salem and Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. I will be providing you will extra tutelage in the coursework you'll be expected to know should you go on to higher learning in a non-magical institute after you write your NEWTS."

"Nice to meet you, Sir."

"You will be expected to maintain a certain level of grades, Alexander," Arthur said seriously, "Last year we didn't watch as closely because we had nowhere else to send you, but if your grades drop you will not be permitted to continue at Hogwarts."

Xander swallowed, but nodded. "I understand."

"Judging from your marks last year, I don't believe there will be any great issues," Arthur said, glancing through the sheaf of parchment he was holding. "You've turned out very respectable results that, while not exceptional, do show you to be ahead of the class averages at Hogwarts and here."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Now, the standard warnings of gloom and doom done with, I believe that you're Great Aunt wishes to speak with you in private." Arthur stood, "You may, of course, use my office if you like."

"Thank you, no, Dean." Jessica Lavelle said as she too rose up. "I believe we'll talk and walk."

"Of course." Arthur replied, returning to his seat with an affable grin.

"Come along child," Jessica said, laying a hand on Xander's shoulder.

Xander nodded and let her lead him out.

Once they were away from the office, outside and moving along the manicured paths that made up the non-volcanic portion of the campus, Jessica spoke again.

"Lesson one, never hold a private conversation in someone else's office." She said out of the blue, "It is an invitation to nosy busybodies to spy on you."

Xander blinked, looking back, "You think he would have...?"

"Unlikely, but possible. No, I meant it as general advice, child." The older woman said, "It is far too easy for Wizards or Witches to get the idea that they deserve to know everything about everyone around them. Power Dementia is an ugly thing."

Not knowing what else to do, Xander nodded in agreement.

Jessica smiled, "You don't know what I mean yet, child, but you will. Tell me, what do you know about your family?"

"About my mom and dad?"

"No, Alex. Your family. The Lavelle's and the Harris'."

Xander shrugged, "not much. Mom told me some over the summer, but it seems really complicated."

Jessica sighed, shaking her head. "You should have been identified as magical a long time ago, Alexander. The scrying devices must have been blinded by the infernal portal you live near, and no one thought to check The Book. Marcus will tell you nothing of the Harris family, I expect, and there is little I can say other than some background."

She paused, considering, "The Harris magical line is Irish, as is your Lavelle bloodline, though we Lavelles are a widely traveled bunch. Both trunk lines were destroyed, as I told you before, and now only the Colonial lines exist. Some here, some in Africa, Australia, South America. Likely a few extended relations in the Ural mountains, and possibly even into the Russia's, Lavelle family only. Harris clan members are almost entirely in Australia and America, and most of those in Australia have been disowned at some point in their ancestry."

"Why?"

"As the non-magical folk sent criminals to Australia as punishment, so too did our lines send... black sheep. Family members who chose not to fit in, but rather to cause trouble in one form or another." Jessica shrugged, "Actually, many of those types came to America as well, but our ancestors on this side of the Atlantic were usually too important to strike from the family register and so your paternal blood is possibly one of the last of the official Harris lines."

"Whoa." Xander blinked.

"You don't understand any of this, I know," She sighed. "So much to learn, so little time. On the Lavelle side you're not quite as important, but you're still one of ours and we tend to stick together."

"I know some of this stuff," Xander said, frowning. "Blood seems really important to a lot of people in England, you know."

She smiled slightly, "I was aware, yes."

"A lot of my schoolmates," Xander wouldn't say friends, "seem to think it's the most important thing when it comes to being magical."

"Many people do, though I will say that few of them are intelligent folk." Jessica said, faintly amused, "Of course, in fairness, few folk of any sort are intelligent."

"My friends are." Xander said, his tone defensive.

She smiled at that, amused by his instant leap to the defense of his friends. "Perhaps. Are they purebloods?"

Xander snorted, "Not hardly. Hermione is muggle-born, and Wednesday things purebloods are pretty thin blooded."

"Interesting names." Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"I guess."

"I'll tell you a little secret, Alexander, something pureblood lines hate to dwell on." Jessica said after a moment, "If you go back far enough, even the oldest pureblood family begins with a 'muggle-born'. We came from the non-magical populace, as does every variation of humanity in existence. Vampires, Lycans, Wizarding Kind, all from the same source. What many would consider 'lowly' humans."

Xander smirked, "Makes sense. I knew there was nothing to this pureblood stuff."

"I did not say that, Alexander." Jessica said sharply. "Remember this well, we may have originated from them, but bloodlines that have existed for centuries and even millennia are changed by time. There are talents, little blood traits that arise from time to time in a bloodline, that do follow the blood. They separate us from the majority of those who are born to non-magical folk. You will almost never see a Speaker born to normal folk, not one of any stripe."

"Speaker?"

"Those who have a natural empathy with an element of magic. There are those who speak with animals, elements, even the spirits who have crossed over."

"Spirits? You mean ghosts?" Xander grinned, "Anyone can speak with them."

"No, those who have crossed over. Not the souls who remain here for whatever reason, those who have moved on." She corrected sharply. "These are bloodline traits, it's almost unheard of for a first generation Wizard or Witch to enjoy anything of the like."

Xander considered that for a long moment, then spoke up, "Do our families have any talents like that?"

Jessica smiled, "Good question, child. One I will table until another time, however. If you're very good, you'll be able to answer it for yourself."

Xander crossed his arms over his chest and sulked slightly, causing her to laugh again.

"Come, Alex. Our time runs short, and you have another busy year ahead of you."

* * *

His great Aunt led him back to the dorms, then bade him goodbye, leaving Xander feeling very confused as to what the whole meeting had been about. One thing he did know, however, was that he was going to be doing some research into his family lines just as soon as he got a chance.

The possibility of having magical talents that went beyond casting spells was just too cool to leave unchecked.

He played with Fenrir a bit, then went to sleep for the night with the knowledge that he'd be heading back to England the next day dancing through his dreams all night. Lack of proper sleep aside, however, Xander was up early and excited to get moving. He was meeting up with Wednesday again today.

* * *

The Addams once again arrived by car, forgoing the faster modes of transport in favor of the ancient automobile chauffeured by the title character from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

"Wednesday!"

"Alexander." Wednesday Addams returned his happy shout with a more reserved greeting, leading Xander to slow his approach slightly, and shift to a more laid back wave.

"Ready for more Hogwarts?" he asked, smiling.

"Of course. Are you?" She asked pointedly, one eyebrow peaking.

"Probably not." He grinned.

She sighed slightly, shaking her head, then turned back to her parents. "Mother, Father."

"Wednesday, Darling, we'll miss you so." Mortisha said, leaning over to hug her daughter.

"Alex, my boy," Gomez greeted Xander as he came around the car, "How have you been? Care for a cigar?"

"Uh, no thanks, and I've been good, Sir."

"Sir. Please, call me Gomez lad." The exuberant man laughed, "No need to stand on ceremony with me."

"Gomez, honey, Wednesday is ready to go." Mortisha said, dabbing at her eyes.

"Ah yes, off on another adventure. You do us proud, Wednesday, just remember the Addams motto and you'll do fine." Gomez said with a fierce grin.

"Of course."

"Addams motto?" Xander asked, curious.

"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us." Wednesday said in a deadpan delivery.

"Yikes. Cheery." Xander blurted with a shiver.

"I know," Gomez clasped his hands together. "Gives me goosebumps just thinking it. That's a strong family statement, my boy."

Xander nodded, slowly. He couldn't really argue with that, that was for sure.

* * *

The elder Addams left shortly after, and with only a short bit of milling around Xander and Wednesday were herded into a smaller group than the last time, with professor Hardy chaperoning.

"Is everyone here?" he asked, looking around. Once he had satisfied himself that he wasn't missing any of his charges, he gave out the last minute directions and held out the portkey.

When they all touched it, the key tugged them into the swirling space they transited, and then spat them back out in London's Diagon Alley. The group arrival created a bit of a fuss, but things calmed down shortly as the group made their way around the alley, getting their books for the year. There seemed to be a lot more of them this year, Xander noticed, most written by the same guy.

"Who's this Lockhart dude?" He whispered to Wednesday.

"I do not know." She admitted, "I've never read any of these books."

"They look kinda cool." Xander said hesitantly.

Indeed, they looked a lot cooler than the other books they had to buy. Shiny covers, moving pictures, and a wizard posing on the front of each book with wide smiles and heroic looking postures made the books seem pretty interesting. Xander tucked them away, counting out his money quickly, and wondered if he could get some time in some of the other stores before they had to go.

It wasn't to be, however, as Hardy rounded them up shortly after that and another portkey later found them on platform nine and three quarters as people milled about, saying their goodbyes to students who were boarding the train.

"Alexander, Wednesday, I'll see you on the train now." Hardy said firmly.

"You're not coming?"

"No, I have to take the others across the channel to Beauxbatons and Durmstrang." he said, "You two are the only two returning to Hogwarts."

Xander nodded and Wednesday merely pulled him along.

"Come alone, it's time to board."

"Alright, see ya, Sir!"

Professor Hardy nodded as the duo boarded the train, then turned to the rest of his charges and withdrew his portkey ring yet again.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander and Wednesday had taken a seat in an empty compartment, the dark girl's quiet stare more than enough to scare away any firsties who may have normally dared intrude, and several second through fourth years who had appeared as well. The train rumbled once or twice, and then a few minutes after they had boarded they were on their way. The two sat in what could have been uncomfortable silence for most, but was more of a companionable quiet for them, both reading their own books up until the door burst open and Hermione rushed in.

"Herms." Xander grinned, putting his books aside.

"Oh god, have either of you seen Harry or Ron?" The young witch asked tightly.

Wednesday raised one eyebrow, "Have you misplaced them?"

Used to the Raven of Ravenclaw's sardonic comments, Hermione just slumped into the seat across from them, "I can't find them anywhere, they didn't get on the train."

Xander frowned, "Huh."

"Huh!? HUH!? Is that all you can say?"

"Have you told the prefects?" Xander asked.

"Of course I have."

"Well, until we get to Hogwarts we can't do anything else. Unless you want to fly back on broomstick and search London." Xander suggested wryly, then paled when he saw the gleam in Hermione's eyes, "And I was JOKING about that. Wednesday and I are Americans, for god's sake, we'd get lost before we even FOUND London."

"I would not." Wednesday objected calmly.

"Fine, I would." Xander retorted. "They probably just ran late, they'll get ahold of someone and probably be in the castle before we are."

"You really think so?" Hermione asked, expression hopeful.

"If not, I think that there's a small army of professors who'll be out looking for them, and THEY know the area." Xander shrugged. "Besides, Harry's tough."

"Right, and Ron is with him too." Hermione let out a breath.

Xander glanced at Wednesday, then shrugged, "I'm sure he'll be ok anyway."

* * *

Their arrival in Hogwarts was uneventful, though Hermione flew right at Hagrid when the big man arrived to gather up the first years.

"Hagrid! Hagrid, you have to help!"

"There, there, Hermione, what's wrong then?" Hagrid paused, turning away from the quailing first years.

"Harry and Ron never made it on the train!"

"WHAT!?" The giant of a man roared, sending eleven year olds cowering to the cobblestones.

"Relax." Xander said, "Hagrid's alright."

They looked up at him, unbelieving.

"Are you sure?" one asked quietly, looking like he was about to pee his pants.

"He's harmless, unless he sits on you," Xander replied with a smirk.

That was a joke most of them got, and the giggled hesitantly. A redheaded girl nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, my brothers say Hagrid's the best."

Xander turned his focus on her, one eyebrow crooking. "Let me guess, Weasely?"

She glared at him, noting his green and silver, "Something wrong with that?"

"I suppose it depends." Xander replied dryly, "Do you take after Ron, the Twins, or Percy?"

She grinned cruelly. "The twins are scared of me."

"Lord help us all, we're doomed." Xander returned with an expression and a tone to match Wednesday at her sarcastic, cutting best.

The girl reddened, but their attention was diverted away from their banter to where Hermione was chattering urgently with Hagrid.

"Right then," The big man said, coming to a decision, "Let's get your first years in ta the castle. Don't you worry, Hermione, I'll go straight to McGonagall as soon as we arrive. We'll get 'em back, don't you worry none."

"Too late," Hermione said softly.

Xander put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed slightly, then nodded to the carriages. She nodded in agreement and along with Wednesday they headed in that direction.

As they arrived at the waiting carriages, however, two more redheads were waiting.

"Oh brother of mine, look here, our favorite..."

"Test subject has returned."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Do you guys mind? Hermione is worried about Harry and your bother."

The two shrugged, "Those two will be fine..."

"We taught Ron everything he knows."

"Well that explains the attitude." Xander retorted sarcastically.

The twins looked at each other, the grinned evilly at him.

"Just so you know..."

"We didn't get enough time to properly pay you back last year."

"But now, the gods have smiled on us. We must have done something right in a previous life."

The two glanced at each other, puzzled, then spoke together. "Can't imagine what that would have been."

They shrugged, then went on with their normal back and forth.

"Anyway, now we get you for a full year."

"Our prayers have been answered."

"We do hope you're ready for pain,"

"Humiliation..."

"Degradations..."

"And then, when you're used to wearing green and silver again," The twins smirked, "We'll take a shot or two at you as well."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Get a new act, this one's stale."

Then the three boarded the carriages as the twins looked at each other with determined expressions.

"What should we do, brother of mine?"

"I know, we will get him..."

"At the feast!"

"Brilliant!" The two grinned together as the carriage doors closed, leaving Xander to sigh.

"Those two are a good argument for birth control."

"Xander!" Hermione flushed hotly.

* * *

As they approached the castle, Xander noticed that Hagrid had indeed beat them there in the normally slow boats and was conferring urgently with Professor McGonagall. The older woman got very tense and hurried off into the castle, which told Xander that at least someone was doing something. He relaxed a bit himself, letting out some tension he hadn't really known he was carrying.

Harry was a good enough guy, and Hermione liked the two of them, so yeah he was a bit worried.

"Oh look, the Barbarian is back and hanging out with his little mudblood again."

The drawling voice cut into the thoughts of the trio as they walked up to the castle, and they looked up to see Draco Malfoy leaning against a wall ahead of them.

"Still with the same old routine, huh?" Xander shook his head, "I told the twins that their act was stale, but you're is growing mold, Draco."

Draco stiffened, glaring at Xander, "How DARE you?"

"Besides," Xander went on, ignoring the question, "It's not like 'mudblood' is a good description of muggle borns, Draco."

"What?" The blond boy blinked, noticing now that the 'conversation' was drawing a crowd.

"Actually, I think that mudblood would be a better description for purebloods who have children with known problems, like squibs." Xander went on, "I mean, how can you call Hermione a mudblood when you don't know what her blood line is, was, or will be? She could be anything, from the worst traits on the planet, to the very best. You just don't know, right?"

"Uh..."

Draco looked lost as Hermione stared at Xander with an expression alternating between horror and fascination.

"I think that muggle borns, real muggle-borns," Xander said pensively, "are better named... Wildbloods."

"Wildblood?" Draco blurted out, going red. "What kind of nonsense is..."

"Well, if you can't predict her blood traits, then she's a wild factor, isn't she?" Xander asked, shrugging. "So you can't call her a mudblood, because you can't prove it. In a couple hundred years, after she's had children, grandchildren, and so on... well then you can say one way or the other, but right now it just makes you sound stupid."

"Indeed." Wednesday intoned as she walked past, "Not that you need the help."

Several of the gathered crowd stopped murmuring at what Xander had said to laugh nervously at Wednesday's comments, which only riled Draco up more. He jumped forward, grabbing Wednesday by the arm and whipping her around violently.

"You freak! You can't talk to me like-!"

Hus statement was cut off by Wednesday's wand jabbing into his crotch, Xander's driving up under his ear, and Hermione's glowing between his eyes. He froze, turning remarkably pale as Xander glared at the two bookends who had only just realized he needed help.

"Back off." Xander growled at Crabbe and Goyle before turning to Malfoy. "Here's how this works. You can insult all you like, we'll insult back. You can argue, we'll argue back. Or you can get violent."

Wednesday looked up at Draco, jabbing her wand once into his groin, "And then we will get violent back... after that, you won't insult, argue, or get violent again. Ever."

Draco, still staring cross eyed at the glowing wand between his eyes, squeaked.

"Now go and play, little boy." Wednesday said softly. "Before I decide to play with you."

They released him and the Malfoy scion stumbled back, practically falling on his ass before Crabbe and Goyle grabbed him to keep him from falling. He stared at them in undisguised fear before the three of them retreated.

"You've gotten better." Wednesday nodded slightly to Xander as they put away their wands.

"Practicing over the summer," he said, "Plus my uncle's former Navy and he decided I needed some exercise and stuff."

Wednesday nodded, not bothering to comment on what 'stuff' was. Xander just grinned at Hermione, nodding to her wand. "That was so freaking cool. What spell were you ready to cast?"

She blushed, "Actually, it was just a tinted lumos spell. I thought it would look intimidating."

"Sweet." Xander grinned, glancing over his shoulder, "I think you intimidated Draco into a new pair of shorts."

"Oh ew!"

"Indeed," Wednesday rolled her eyes, "I did not need that image, thank you very much."

Xander shrugged, "Everyone's a critic."

The trio glanced around, noting finally that they had drawn a crowd. Wednesday coolly ignored them as Hermione blushed at all the attention, but Xander just bowed.

"Thank you, thank you, we're here on year folks." he said with a flourish and bow, "please, no flowers, just throw money."

The crowd chuckled at that and began to break up. The trio were heading in to the school when a scream went up, and they spun around to see people pointing into the air as an old car *flew* past.

"That I did not see coming." Xander said, staring at the sky as the car looped around, barely missing a tower, and came back.

"Oh my god!" Hermione screamed, hands flying to her mouth.

"I'm just guessing, but I'd say that Harry and Ron are here." Xander said to no one in particular.

"What makes you think it's Potter?"

Xander glanced to one side, then nodded to Daphne as the dark haired girl stepped up beside him.

"Two reasons," Xander said as the car did a loop the loop. "First, Harry's the only guy missing who can make an entrance that big..."

The car missed it's landing, then swerved left and careened into the whomping willow, which proceeded, well, whomp on it with a great deal of enthusiasm. Xander winced, "And two, only Ron could possibly screw it up that bad."

Professors rushed out of the school, running in a group down to the willow as it proceeded to pound on the car and, as the school watched, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were rescued from the flying car before it, apparently on its own cognizance, took off for the forbidden forest.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Xander said, looking at the group of first years that was nearby. "Believe it or not, this isn't really all that strange."

A few of them tittered nervously, then several laughed outright, and as the word came back that both Harry and Ron would be alright after a stay in the infirmary wing, they began to laugh almost uncontrollably as the teachers came back, looking completely befuddled by the reaction of the students to the events in question.

Xander let out a breath, then looked around to see that Hermione was gone, chasing after the teachers who had Ron and Harry. He shrugged, then extended an arm to Wednesday with exaggerated gallantry.

"Shall we?"

She looked at him evenly for a moment, then nodded and accepted his arm.

Green and Silver strode with Blue and Black, walking through the laughing first years and into Hogwarts and their second year of magical education.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander watched the sorting from the Slytherin table, trying to ignore the sheer weight of the loathing he could feel emanating from Draco as the blond boy sat in his normal position to Xander's left. Daphne had taken a place on his right, for which Xander was grateful cause it meant that he at least had some semi decent conversation as things moved along.

The hat had sent Slytherin it's fair share of the firsties, Xander noted, though most of them seemed a little cowed compared to the exuberant ones that were ricocheting around the Gryffindor table. Xander supposed that there were some good things to being the 'evil' group.

As the sorting was finished, the headmaster looked around and delivered his normal speech, introducing the new defense professor as one Gilderoy Lockhart. Xander frowned, thinking about where he'd heard that name before, then realized that it was the author of many of his new books.

Weird, Xander frowned. School books were standardized, right? A professor couldn't just pick his own books as the ones to teach out of? Maybe the standards had been updated this year, Xander supposed, and Dumbledore had elected to hire the man because his books were considered the new standard.

Still seemed weird. He wondered what Hermione thought about it.

Thinking about the bushy haired girl caused Xander to glance over at the Gryff table just as the headmaster uttered his final words and the tables groaned under the heavy weight of food appearing from nowhere. In that moment Xander's eyes crossed over the Twin's positions and he noticed them both studiously looking anywhere but at the Slytherins.

That brought him up short and he glared at the food in front of them.

"The banquet do anything to you, Harris?" Daphne asked curiously, noting his expression.

Xander hesitated, then drew his wand and glanced around. He spotted a Firstie wearing glasses and reached over Daphne to snag them.

"Hey!"

"Quiet. I'll pass them back in a moment." Xander tapped the glasses with his wand under the table and uttered the charm he used to try and break down potions ingredients, then brought the glasses up and put them on.

The prescription nearly crossed his eyes when he looked through them, and he shook his head. "God, are you part bat? You've got to be blind as one..."

He forced himself to look at the food, though, and noticed that most of it was fine but the meat pie was showing a familiar pattern. He pulled the glasses off and slid them back to the table, catching Draco's hand as he lifted a slice of the pie to his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked, his expression disgusted as he looked down his nose at Xander. "Unhand me this instant."

"Twins got to the meat pie." Xander hissed, "Pass it on down the line. Don't know what it does, but let's not make fools of ourselves at the first meal of the year."

Draco swallowed, but nodded and set down the slice of pie before turning and whispering the message along as Xander turned to Daphne.

"Pass the word, stay clear of the pie. Weasley twins got into the kitchens."

Daphne paled slightly, but nodded and in a few moments the word had rippled down that side of the table as well. She turned back to him as he helped himself to some potatoes. "How'd you know?"

"Used an ingredients charm on the meat pie."

She blinked, "Did it show you something poisonous?"

Xander looked at her, startled, "Course not. They're pranksters, not assassins. No, the twins use an obscuring method I haven't cracked to protect their recipes."

She frowned, "So how did you know they did anything?"

"Well when the pie wouldn't tell me what was in it, I was pretty sure someone was up to no good." Xander replied dryly, then chuckled at the chagrined look on her face.

While they were talking, a fifth year moved behind them and leaned in. "What's going on?"

Xander explained, and the older kid frowned, "Those charms don't give you specific information, you have to interpret the aura of the magically affected ingredients. Everything on this table was just transported up here magically, you mean to tell me you can tell every possible aura, and its combinations, at a glance like that?"

Xander shook his head, "Of course not. But the twins use an obscuring technique on their jokes, so people can't copy them. I recognize that pattern."

The fifth year shook his head, "I don't want to know."

Xander chuckled, and the meal went on with the Slytherin's carefully avoiding the pie as they ate, while the twins shot confused glares in their direction. Xander snagged a piece of pie before it was banished at the end of the meal, then stole the firsties glasses again when desert appeared. After a careful look around the table he handed the glasses back, canceling the charm, and nodded to everyone.

Slytherin tucked in as the twins glared at them from the Gryff table but apparently they'd only had time to nail the one dish since they had only arrived less than two hours earlier. When the meal ended, the prefects led the first years to the dorms while the rest filtered in on their own. Inside the Slytherin dorms Xander took out the pie and looked around at a few who were watching him expectantly.

"Alright, let's see what the show was supposed to be..." He said, taking a breath before hesitantly taking a big bite of the pie.

For a moment nothing happened, then suddenly Xander's whole body shook and he seemed to inflate like a balloon. In a few seconds he had gone from a fairly average looking sort to the poster boy for Pillsbury. He sighed, looking down at himself as he spat the bite of pie out into the trash.

"Right. I need someone who knows runes and someone who knows arithmancy." Xander said coldly, the tone sounding odd coming from his huge body as he waddled around. "Draco, you know how to get around the school unnoticed after dark, right?"

Malfoy glared at Xander, but remembering that he had kept him from eating the tainted pie nodded grudgingly. "You'll never get into Gryffindor dorms without the password though."

"Who wants into Gryffindor?"

* * *

Xander got his volunteers, so the four of them, Xander, a seventh year named Harrow, a sixth year named Jacobs, and Draco snuck out after curfew through a passage Draco swore them to secrecy about.

"How'd you know about that?" Xander asked, grudgingly admiring the knowledge of the blond.

Draco smirked at him, "You would never believe the things I know about Hogwarts."

"Right." Xander rolled his eyes.

The four made their way through the back halls until they reached the great hall.

"Keep watch," Xander hissed to Draco, "If you see *anyone* you come get us. Don't yell, don't run, come get us."

Draco waved at him, "Yes, yes, just hurry up before we lose enough points to sink any hope of the house cup."

Xander nodded and led the other two into the hall. They looked expectantly at the Gryffindor table, but Xander shook his head and lead them straight to the Slytherin table.

"Here," He said softly, drawing his wand and casting the reverse of the identification charm, "This is the plan."

* * *

Sometime later the four snuck back into the Slytherin common room, led by Draco with Xander taking up the rear. Once inside, Xander looked at them seriously, "Just remember, act surprised and shocked when it happens."

Harrow nodded jerkily, as pale as a ghost, and Jacobs wasn't much better.

Draco looked at them, then back at Xander, "When what happens? What did you do?"

Xander smirked, "You don't want to know."

Draco started to object, but Harrows shook his head, "You really don't, Malfoy. I wish *I* didn't know. If anyone finds out we did this..."

"They won't." Xander said confidently.

"Did what?" Draco was beginning to become concerned. Not for whatever it was they had done, but for how it might bleed over on him.

"Call it plausible deniability, Draco. Trust me, you do NOT want to be blamed for this one." Xander said with a grin.

Draco looked at the three of them and growled, "Fine. Like I care anyway."

He turned in a huff and stomped off, as the other two looked at Xander with concern.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Harrow said tensely. "If Professor Snape or the Headmaster figure this out... They might just let Filch break out his 'toys' just for us."

Xander nodded, "I know. So just remember, don't let on that you were expecting anything and don't go sneering at the twins either. You'll give the game away."

"Better tell that to Draco," Jacobs sighed.

"If Draco *doesn't* sneer at the twins, that'll give the game away." Xander said, rolling his eyes.

"He's not exactly subtle, is he?" Harrow asked, chuckling.

Xander shook his head, "He's not as cunning as he thinks, that's for sure. And lord knows, his only ambition is to spend his daddies money. You ever get the idea that some people just get dumped in here by default cause no other house would take them?"

Jacobs winced, "That's dangerous talk, Harris. Just a friendly warning, Malfoy may not be subtle, but with the power his family wields he doesn't have to be. You might want to stop pissing him off."

Xander shrugged, "I don't really care, I mean it's not like I have to live around him, you know? I'm an American, and I'm going home sooner or later."

"Just don't expect the rest of us to join you in annoying the bear cub, ok Harris?" Harrow said with a sigh, "We have to live around here."

"No problem." Xander smiled, heading for the stairs to his room. "See you in the morning."

The two shuddered, thinking about breakfast.

"You know, I might sleep in." Harrow said with a shiver.

"Me too."

Xander chuckled evilly, and headed to his room.

The two older students looked at each other after he left and shook their heads.

"You know, I think I'll not gamble against Harris." Harrow said carefully.

"Yeah, tough to play against someone who's willing to risk everything without blinking." Jacobs agreed.

* * *

The next morning saw Xander coming into the Hall for breakfast a little early. He knew it was stupid, but there was simply no way he wasn't going to be present when this one went down. He wanted to see the looks on the Twin's faces when everything hit the fan.

Kids were trickling in, and Xander noticed that the twins hadn't arrived yet. He was a little disappointed, really, cause he was pretty sure that they weren't the types to let their gags go off without being around to watch the fireworks either. Xander shrugged it off, remembering that it didn't matter if they didn't pull anything this morning.

Sooner or later they'd try again.

He settled in, this time with the safety goggles he'd used for potions work in his basement resting in his pocket. The hardened acetate goggles were crystal clear, and wouldn't give him a headache like the borrowed prescription lenses had yesterday. He cast the charm on them quietly and scanned the table quickly, but found nothing out of the ordinary so he settled in to eat.

The twins came in a few minutes after he did, and Xander tensed as he watched them.

They didn't look at him as they sat down at Gryffindor table, along with Harry and Ron Xander noted with some relief. He'd known that they would be ok, but it was good to see them up and around. He nodded to Harry, then smiled and waved at Hermione. The twins glared at both Xander and Hermione briefly, but seemed to give it up as pointless a moment later before they both looked over at Xander, smiled sweetly in unison, and waved.

Oh crap, Xander though, his stomach roiling. Did they do what he expected? Or something new? There was nothing he could do about it now, though, other than hope they kept up their barrage.

The professors were settling in now, chatting amiably for the most part as they ate. Xander noticed that Snape seemed to prefer reading the prophet in the morning, but Lockhart was attempting to chat his ear off and the dark professor was visibly restraining himself from cursing his colleague, probably magically as well as verbally.

It happened shortly after that.

There was an audible 'pop', the sound filling the Hall, and Xander instinctively looked over to the twins, who were gleefully looking back at him. He saw their expressions grow puzzled, then both paled as one as their attention twisted away from the Slytherin table.

Xander followed their gaze, biting his cheek as hard as he could when he saw what could only have been Professor McGonagall squawk loudly, feathers fluttering as she bounced around the table in obvious aggravation. The other professors were staring in rampant shock, except for Headmaster Dumbledore who seemed to be shifting between amused surprise and mild annoyance.

The next disruption was at the other end of the faculty table, when Professor Snape suddenly began to gag as his mouth was forced open and his tongue rolled out of his mouth, thumping down onto the table, and rolled to the left across Professor Lockhart's hand as the shocked man froze in mid reach for a platter of hash browns.

That was the signal for pure pandemonium as one professor after another began to change into various colors, forms, and whatever else. Even the headmaster was not immune as his face turned a bright red, then gold, and began to cycle rapidly between the two like some signal light. Students were caught between staring in shock and laughing in hysterical glee. Xander settled for what he hoped was a blank stare of surprise and shock.

Lockhart, one of the only professors unaffected by virtue, Xander thought, of not having had time to eat while chatting to professor Snape, withdrew his wand immediately and began yelling.

"It's alright, I'm here! I know just the counter curse for this, professor Snape, hold still now..."

Snape drew his wand in a flash, but the four foot tongue made a total hash of whatever he was trying to cast, and Lockhart quickly cast his counter curse with a flourish.

This time Xander didn't have to fake shock as Snape's tongue *fell out* and flopped around the table. He winced and jumped up quickly, running over, God I hope they can reattach that!

"Go get the nurse!" He yelled at the closest student he could grab, then rushed the head table as Snape glared murderously at Lockhart as the Defense professor stammered and looked at the writhing tongue in shock.

"Uh, well there now, you can close your mouth properly, right?" he asked with halting laughter.

Snape's eyes practically glowed with an unholy light as he snapped his wand out and cast a silent stinging hex at the Defense professor.

Lockhart jumped in pain, yelping. "Here now, there's no cause to... OW!"

The third hex sent Lockhart running from the hall with Snape on his heals just as Xander arrived at the faculty table and grimaced down at the writing tongue that was curling around a plate of bacon and eggs.

"Ugh... No way am I touching that."

The transformations began to reverse, starting with McGonagall, just as Nurse Pomfrey came rushing in.

"What's this about someone cutting Severus' tongue out?" She asked, eyes searching blood.

"I don't know about cutting, Ma'am." Xander said, nodding to the still writing tongue. "But Professor Lockhart cast some kind of spell that did that."

"Merlin's beard." Pomfrey hissed, looking around. "Where's Severus?"

"Chasing Lockhart across the Channel, heading for France right about now." Xander replied dryly.

"I doubt they've reached that distance just yet, young man." Albus Dumbledore said with an amused twinkle as he too examined the tongue. "I haven't seen this curse cast in many a year, I must say, Professor Lockhart has quite a hand with a very obscure silencing curse."

"I don't think this is what he meant to do," Xander said dryly.

"Yes, well, that's what we'll tell Severus at least." Dumbledore chuckled.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASELY!"

Minerva McGonagall's scream of outraged ire froze the twins in place where they were trying to sneak out of the hall.

They turned around, both quite pale.

"We swear, professor, we didn't..."

"REALLY didn't..."

"Do this." Both said together.

"Don't you lie to me! I recognize your idiotic hand in this insane prank!" McGonagall roared, "Fifty points from Gryffindor and detentions for the rest of the month! And I swear, if I catch you pulling anything like this again, why I'll... I'll..."

They didn't get to hear what she would do as the room was distracted by Snape reappearing, dragging a badly beaten Gilderoy Lockhart by one leg. He dropped the leg just inside the hall and walked with as much dignity as he could muster to the head table, nodding to Madam Pomfrey, then at his tongue which had returned to normal size on the table.

"I'll see what I can do, Professor," The nurse said quickly, "I'm afraid I don't know this curse, though..."

"I do, Severus," Dumbledore said calmly, "And it can be reversed with little trouble. Have no worries."

Snape visibly seemed to relax as Minerva continued laying into the twins, who had finally seemed to come to a realization as they stared at Xander as one.

"YOU!"

"Me?" Xander tried to look shocked.

"Him?" McGonagall blinked, "Sure you're not blaming a second year for this ruckus!?"

The twins froze, not wanting to be the ones who dragged teachers into it, nor to give credit to someone for pranking THEM. Albus Dumbledore, however, had already turned to Xander.

"Did you do this, young man?"

Xander was about to answer when Snape twisted him around and glared at him. Xander swallowed, "Professors, I freely admit that I've tried to duplicate the twins pranks, but I've not had any luck. Frankly the work is beyond me, and the twins use some kind of obscuring charm to keep people from working out their things."

Snape glanced over at Dumbledore and nodded slightly as Minerva whipped out her wand and examined the tainted food.

"He's right," She said, "There's a complex obscurement charm over all the... prank products. It's far beyond a second year. You two, with me. NOW."

The twins fell in behind their head of house as she left, shooting death glares over their shoulders at Xander. He didn't dare smirk at them, however, not with Snape and Dumbledore watching him.

"Come along Severus," Poppy said, levitating the tongue with her wand. "I'll need your help as well, Albus, if we're to do this quickly."

"Of course, Poppy," Dumbledore said calmly. "Let us be off."

Xander watched them leave and let out a relieved sigh as he fought to keep his legs from turning to jello. He walked as calmly as he could back to the Slytherin table, sitting woodenly as he began to force himself to eat.

Daphne looked over at him, eyes wide. Everyone knew that he was planning something, but this was beyond anything they'd even dreamt. "What did you do?"

Xander didn't look at her as he whispered back, "We warded the table. Anything the twins send here with that obscurement charm on it gets dumped on the professors table instead."

She stared at him, jaw dropping open, the closed it slowly and went back to eating. Xander didn't move until Harrow and Jacobs entered the hall. He got up and left the table, meeting them as they were about to sit down.

"Destroy the runes, eliminate the evidence." He hissed. "Professor Snape will be looking for blood on this one."

The both paled, then nodded curtly as Xander kept moving past them, heading for his first class.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The rest of the day was damage control as Xander rapidly learned to regret letting so many people know, or even have a hint of what he had been up to. Slytherins were all but publically congratulating him on the stunt, and Xander knew it was only a matter of time before it got back to Professor Snape, and quickly started working on a story that fit the facts.

He snagged Harrow and Jacobs in between classes and filled them in, leaving Draco out because the blond didn't really have any details. After that he spent the rest of the day repeating the same thing over and over, and praying that it got back to Snape before the original rumors did.

Defense class with the Gryffindors was tense as hell, but luckily Lockhart broke that up by the end when he unleashed a horde of pixies on the class. Xander and Draco wound up back to back as the damned things fluttered around, wands out for all the good they did.

"Break for the door on three?" Xander asked over his shoulder.

"Right. Vin, Greg, you with us?"

The two larger boys nodded, also waving their wands around to little effect.

"Three!" Xander snapped, barely ducking a dive bombing pixy as he leapt over a desk and rolled into the aisle.

"Hey! What happened to one and two!?" Draco yelped, sliding to the ground under a flying book, skidding into the aisle across from Xander as Crabbe and Goyle followed on their hands and knees.

Xander blasted a stupefy into the air, scattering a group of pixies that were lining up for a run on Hermione and Harry's position, then scrambled to his feet and pulled Draco along as he bolted for the door. "One and two were too damned slow and they got left behind! Now run unless you want to join them!"

They reached the door just as another mini horde of the damn things swung around, and both Slytherin's dove through under the assault, scraping their knees and elbows as they slid into the hall. They rolled over onto the backs, wincing as Greg Goyle and Vincent Crabbe were caught in the attack that missed them. The pixies picked the two hulking boys up, tossing them around for a bit, then casually flicked them out the door.

Xander and Draco split apart, rolling clear as the duo splattered into the floor and wall where they had been.

"You two dead?" Xander asked from where he had rolled to a stop.

Vince groaned as Greg just managed to roll his head up and look around with a stunned expression.

"I'd move if I were you."

"Huh?" Greg blinked. "Why?"

Xander just grimaced as the horde of students came rampaging out of the classroom, screaming and waving their hands around to hold off the pixies. They proceeded to trample Goyle and Crabbe into the ground as he and Draco pressed against the hall and watched them rush past. When the majority had gone by, Draco looked down at his two friends and winced.

"Vince? Greg? Are you two alright?"

"I think we'd better get them to the infirmary." Xander suggested.

"Don't be stupid," Draco muttered, "They're tough. Right guys?"

Vincent groaned and sat up as Gregory shook his head and rolled to his knees.

"We're fine." Vincent said after a moment. "Right, Greg?"

"Uh... yeah. Fine. What hit me?"

Xander shook his head as Lockhart came rushing out, hitching his robes up and running full bore down the hall. He risked a glance back in the classroom and winced. "Looks like Lockhart has Harry, Ron, and Hermione on cleanup."

Draco laughed, "Good for them. Come on, let's get out of here."

Xander took a breath and sighed, "You go on, I'm going to help out a bit."

Draco gave him an incredulous look, "You mean that after all that, you're going back in there?"

"Oh hell no." Xander muttered, "But my stunner needs practice, so I'm going to play sniper."

"Play what? No, never mind, I don't care." Draco shook his head, "Come on, Greg, Vince. Let's leave the mudblood lover to his friends."

"Wildblood lover, if you please." Xander replied with a smirk, causing Draco to let out a snort of exasperation as he stomped off with his bookends in tow.

Xander chuckled and snuck his head around the corner of the door, jabbing his wand in as he settled his focus on a pixy well away from the others. "Stupefy!"

* * *

Clearing out the classroom took most of the rest of the period devoted to DADA, so Xander figured practicing his stunner on the pixies should count toward his classwork, even if it was a fourth year spell. The rest of the day wasn't nearly as eventful, thank god, and soon enough Xander found himself in the library with Hermione and Wednesday as they reviewed the day's events and did their own reading.

"Thank you again for the help in Defense, today, Xander." Hermione said, sounding grudging.

Xander looked up at her, eyebrow raised, "Are you mad at me?"

"You shouldn't have done that to the Professors, Xander." She scowled.

"Me?" Xander blinked, going into his preplanned story, eyes flickering around to see who was listening. "Herms, come on, I'm a second year... I spent all summer trying to match the twins gags and failed at every shot. Ask Wednesday, I even had her check with her Gramma about potions work. There's no way I could have pulled off those transfigurations and stuff."

She glared at him narrowly, "The twins are swearing that it wasn't them, they were set up."

"I guess it's possible," Xander said, shaking his head, "But I'm nowhere near the level in potions and transfigurations to pull that off."

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip, mulling it over, then sighed. "I'm sorry I blamed you, Xander. I guess the twins have annoyed someone else."

"Yeah well, more power to them, whoever they are." Xander shrugged, mentally cataloging the listeners. A few Ravenclaws, a sprinkling of others, and Madam Pince were all in earshot. "To be honest, I was going to get them back with a prank, but after this morning we decided it would be smarter to call it off."

"We?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"A couple others from my house," Xander shrugged, "It's not like the twins don't deserve some payback, you know. But, like I said, after this morning... it didn't seem prudent to unleash anymore insanity."

"Well good." Hermione said after a moment. "At least you're showing some common sense. Whoever set off that insanity this morning was a complete fool with no respect for the hard work of the professors here and..."

As she went on Xander noticed Wednesday eyeing him evenly over her book, the girl's expression as unexpressive as always, but Xander clearly got the impression she didn't believe a word he had just said. He just shrugged at her and flicked his eyes to Hermione, causing Wednesday to nod once and return her attention to her book as Hermione continued to rant about rule breakers.

Xander cut her off there, "Say, who was it who cursed Neville last year anyway?"

Hermione went beet red, shut up quickly, and ducked her head into her book at that, leaving Xander to smirk softly and return to his own work in the Coven Grimoire.

* * *

Narcissa whistled softly as she read through the notes her unknown student had made. There were some advanced arithmantic and runes work there, devised as part of a warding scheme. It was work well ahead of any second year, and she wondered where he had come across it? It was only an idle thought though, as she was finding herself interested in his notes on the blood tensions in the school. She had to smile when she read the term 'Wildblood' and its description.

Narcissa was a black, part of an older pureblood culture than the Malfoy family, and she had been brought up as an alternate to take over the family bloodline. Her sister Andromeda had been the first choice, their other sibling Bellatrix being too unstable to entrust with such responsibility. When Andy fell in love with a Muggle-born, however, their Aunt had struck her name from the family register.

That had shocked many in the family to the core, and set the Blacks steadily on the road to destruction. Then Matriarch Black was NOT an approved keeper of the line, and was nothing really, but a small minded and petty bitch. The grand old lady who had trained both Andy and herself would have reluctantly accepted Andy's choice, and merely removed her from the primary line.

Now, because of the old bitch and her stupid ideas, Andy's blood was lost to the Blacks, as was the potential in the blood of her Muggle-born... no, her Wildblood Husband. And it was a very interesting bit of potential, Narcissa noted. There had never been a full metamorph in the Black line before, so the trait in Andy's daughter was either fully inherited from her father, or had resulted in the mixing of blood. A few generations down the line, it would have been a great boon to the Black bloodline to bring the descendants of that line back into the Black's primary blood.

Narcissa sighed.

So many things ruined by the small minds of fools who thought to play above their station. The wars had taken the lives of so many of the best and brightest of the world she loved, it seemed that the idiots had inherited what had survived.

Wildblood.

Narcissa reached for a quill and began to pen a note to her sister. Andy would love to hear this.

* * *

The time ran by, with Xander trying hard to deflect the blame, and credit, for the prank of the first morning. He succeeded for the most part, the professors seemed to believe that he didn't have anything to do with it, especially once Draco started bragging loudly about having taken the Twins down a peg or two.

Xander would have smacked him, but he'd expected it and planned for it. When Snape rounded on Draco, and the twit spilled his guts, Xander's cover story had already filtered through to the professor and he just angrily berated Draco in the common room, then stalked off. Snape clearly believed that the twins were to blame, and wasn't interested in hunting down nonexistent Slytherin perps.

He was the most obvious candidate, of course, but that was working in his favor slowly as many of the more even minded types convinced themselves that he couldn't have been the guy who pulled off anything that big. Harrow and Jacobs knew better, but they had done the dirty work and were both Slytherin enough to keep their mouths shut until they were safely away from the school. Xander might have to worry about what Harrow might say after he graduated, but until then he wasn't going to open his yap.

Luckily for him, Draco was bound and determined to move into the limelight and unveiled that same night that his dad had bought brooms for the team, and he was the new Slytherin seeker. The expensive new brooms were the talk of the dorms that night, and the school the next day, and by the end of the week Xander found himself relegated to yesterday's news.

The only people who believed he had pulled off the prank of the year, so far, were a few Gryffindors, and a handful of scattered kids who had all the credibility of UFO spotter back home. Oh, and the twins of course.

Xander had started letting the twins catch him with a few pranks here and there, and to be honest getting caught by a few he hadn't seen coming, just to make himself look like the poor victim. Not the most satisfying way to pass his time, but Xander much preferred to be overlooked.

His close brush with a prank spiraling out of control and nearly getting blamed for it had taught him once lesson.

Secrecy was golden.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Thankfully the term smoothed out after it's rather spectacular start, and Xander quickly fell back into the routine of classes and hanging out with Wednesday and Hermione. It was odd, he supposed, but that was pretty much all he did. Of course, back in Sunnydale he really only went to classes, hung out with Jessie and Willow, and watched TV. Ok, he also read comics, but he did a lot of reading here too.

The new wrinkle this year was Professor Hardy, who showed up right on time over the first weekend. Xander and Wednesday were waiting in the classroom when he strode in and nodded politely to them.

"So, how are things going?"

"Well, Sir." The answered in unison.

Hardy's lips quirked slightly, "I do hope they teach you more than that old gag here in Hogwarts."

Xander grinned back, "Of course, sir."

Wednesday merely raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, here are you're texts for this year." Hardy said, handing them out. "Nothing complicated. American Wizarding History isn't difficult, it's just reading and remembering. I'll trust you to do that yourself, for the most part."

They nodded.

"Now, these," He produced several slim workbooks. "Are a little different. You'll have to do some work here, and I'll be available to make sure you're understanding the work. These are introductory courses to basic physics, chemistry, and biology. For today, let's look at the chemistry primer, as I suspect you'll find some of the details on lab work to be surprising."

The two frowned, but read as directed and very shortly it became clear what Hardy had meant.

"Sir, some of this sounds like potions, but we do it very differently here." Xander said hesitantly.

Hardy nodded and smiled tightly, "You do, don't you. At Salem, however, the Chemistry and Potions classes are... or, rather, were... held in the same labs and used the same procedures for safety, among other things."

"Then why are things different here?" Wednesday asked, genuinely curious, as her Gram mama brewed her potions in a very similar manner to the Hogwarts Curriculum.

"Salem is a member of the New School of potions theory, or as the Europeans tend to call it, The Jeune Ecole." the hawk faced professor said, "Hogwarts, along with most of Europe are adherents of the old school. Most of North America, Australia, and Japan are proponents of the new school of potions theory, while Europe, South America, Africa, and China trend to the Old."

"Which one's better?" Xander asked, looking over the notes. "Hey, I used some of these procedures at home this summer. Mom insisted."

Hardy looked over his shoulder and nodded, "Safety one oh one, it's a good idea when working on your own with no experience, no matter which school. As to which is better, that is a hotly debated issue. There are some clear advantages to both systems, however, which can be considered."

Hardy paused, making sure that both were paying attention, then went on.

"First, the New School uses very tightly controlled procedures, carefully regulated variables, and meticulous lab work. You cut most of your ingredients on glassware, unless the recipe calls for a specific cutting surface, and then you never used the same surface for different ingredients. The idea is to eliminate as many variables as possible, to ensure a consistent brew. Are you following me?"

Xander frowned and looked confused. "Uh..."

Hardly chuckled, "Alright. I'll tell you a story that might help explain things. A long time ago, people used to believe that tomatoes were poisonous, did you know that?"

Xander blinked and looked at Wednesday.

"Uh, no?"

Wednesday smiled, "I did."

"Excellent, do you know why?"

"Lead poisoning."

"Exactly," Hardy nodded, then glanced over to see Xander totally confused. He smiled slightly, "People of the day often used lead dishware, plates and the like. Tomatoes are mildly acidic, and would dissolve the lead, so people eating tomatoes would also consume lead in dangerous quantities. Now, many magical potions ingredients do the same thing when you prepare them. They interact with the cutting surface, sometimes even the knife itself, and add another variable to the potion. Do you understand?"

"I guess so, Sir."

Hardy nodded, "The striving goal behind the New School is to minimize all unknown variables and allow for potions brewers to produce reliable, consistent, brews with minimum effort and time."

"And the Old School, Sir?" Wednesday asked, curious now. She had never been taught any other way, and wondered what he would have to say about it.

"Well, if the new school is a scientists system, then the old school is an artisans system." He replied, "those with real talent tend to flourish better in the older, less precise system. If you have that talent, you learn quickly to adjust for the variables, and can turn out superior products... generally at a cost of time and effort, however."

As his two students were considering that, Hardy went on, "At Salem we don't turn out potions masters and mistresses, we prepare people to take their doctorates in potions theory. The difference between a Master and a PHD is currently a hotly debated issues at the ICW level, and we don't get too much into it for now other than to say that, on average, a Doctor of Potions Theory can brew known potions faster and cheaper than most masters, often in bulk, however Masters tend to make better overall brews and currently lead the world in innovations within the field."

Hardy chuckled, "Master's tend to call Doctors 'assembly line workers' while doctors refer to masters as prima donnas. If you ever get to that level, I assure you, the parties are interesting to watch."

The two children nodded dutifully, not entirely understanding but getting the drift of it.

"The reason I bring this up is that at some point you may find yourselves back in Salem, or at another school or facility that practices the 'Jeune Ecole' method... here in Europe the only school that does so is Beauxbatons, in case you're interested. So I advise you to familiarize yourself with the lab procedures, just in case."

"We will, Sir."

"Very good, now then let's have a look at basic physics and how magic interacts with Newton's Laws." Hardy said, "I think you'll be surprised by some of the things that *aren't* happening when you cast certain spells."

* * *

Those tutoring sessions were short, only a couple of hours once a week, but the reading assigned was significant and Xander found himself spending more time with his school books than the grimoire as the weeks moved on.

Hermione was soon pulled in by the prospects of books not available in Hogwarts library, and Xander found himself sharing his texts with her more and more often. She had immediately gone on a rant about how the new school methodology made so much sense, and had then gone on to bring it up in potions class to Professor Snape.

Now there was a class Xander wished he could have missed.

Snape's rant had taken the entire class, and threatened to spill out into the next period until he'd noticed the time and stormed out of the class, after taking twenty points from Gryffindor of course. Hermione had been caught between tears and rage, huffing about the backwards attitude and such, while Snape had spent the next week growling at her about Potions factories and all sorts of other nastiness.

Suffice to say it made potions with the Gryffs a tense class.

Halloween was almost on them by then, though, and the school was providing its own distractions to break up the tension. The decorations were being setup, and the kids were eager for the holiday. All in all, even with the sniping between Snape and Hermione, things were pretty cheery.

Except for Wednesday, of course.

* * *

"You ok?" Xander asked, "you look kinda down."

Wednesday gave him a look that would have send most others running, but only shrugged. "There is something... wrong in the school."

Xander grinned, "You want to pin it down some more?"

She rolled her eyes, "I have been hearing... things lately."

"It's an old castle, I've been hearing things since last year."

"Not the normal castle sounds, Alexander," She said sharply, "darker sounds. Sounds steeped in black magic."

Xander leaned back at that, "In Hogwarts?"

"Indeed. This is a bastion of the light," She said with a twist of her lips. "But it's ancient as well, and there are many dark secrets buried here."

Xander nodded, "Alright. Any idea what you're hearing?"

She shook her head, "No. Not yet. But when forces this dark entangle in a place this steeped in the light... things will be, ugly."

Xander shivered slightly. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what there was in the castle that could set Wednesday on edge.

* * *

Halloween was upon them in no time, though, and Xander made his way to the Great Hall with several others from his year and house. The decorations were spectacular, as always, with floating jack-o-lanterns lighting the hall, and food bending the large tables under it's weight.

He settled in beside Daphne, nodding to her as she smiled back and tapped a monocle she had resting on the table beside her.

"Food's clean, far as I can see."

"Thanks," Xander nodded, taking her word for it as he started to dig in.

The twins pranks had been petering off as Xander continued with his strategy from last year of taking the small hits and storing them up until the twins had another big knock coming. At this point he suspected that they were starting to doubt he was the culprit themselves, and that was the way he wanted it,

In the meantime, most of Slytherin had figured out the identification charm and the pattern the twins used to obscure their gags. Xander had also noticed some of the Ravenclaws examining their food before eating, and so he knew that particular method wasn't going to last much longer.

As a whole, thankfully, the twins were far more dangerous to the Gryffindors than to anyone else, and with Hermione often ranting about what new stunt they were pulling on poor first year Gryffs, Xander had at least some warning of what they were working on.

He had to admit, though, they were geniuses when it came to this stuff. Way beyond him, and he didn't think he was ever going to catch them. Their real liability wasn't their skill, it was their love of notoriety. As long as they were looking to take credit for their stunts, on one level of another, he had an advantage to play into.

He glanced around the hall, expecting to see Hermione and exchange some greeting for the season anyway, but was surprised to find that not only was she not there, but Ron and Harry were missing too. He shook his head, wondering for a moment what they were up to but decided that they could look after themselves.

He nodded to Wednesday, who nodded back, and was about to move on when he saw the normally unexpressive girl suddenly go tense and snap upright, throwing her chair back to the floor. The other Ravenclaws around her jumped away from her, obviously afraid of the girl, but she didn't move. Fillius approached the table cautiously, and Xander rose up himself, making his way around the table.

"Are you alright, Miss Addams?" Fillius Flitwick asked, eyeing his most disturbing student carefully.

Wednesday didn't reply as Xander hurried over himself.

"Wednesday... Wednesday, are you ok?" Xander asked, moving around the table.

She snapped her head to star into his eyes.

"Something just died."

Xander paled, thinking about what she had said before, and was about to reply when a scream was heard from outside the hall. He, Fillius, and Wednesday were the first to move and got out ahead of the crowd. They made their way through the halls until they found Ron, Harry, and Hermione staring at a mess on the floor in disgust.

On the wall beyond them were words written in blood.

"Enemies of the heir, Beware!"


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The panic that captured the school in those few moments was broken as Albus Dumbledore pushed through the crowd, his very presence broadcasting a quiet security that calmed the younger people present, and even had a noticeable effect on the adults.

"Calmly everyone," he said serenely, "Be calm, and we'll work this out. What has happened?"

"Potter did it!" Draco bellowed, loud enough to be heard through the school. "It was Potter!"

"Shut it, Malfoy!" Ron snarled, taking a step toward the young Malfoy heir, only to be held back by Harry and Hermione.

Albus was looking around slowly when Argus Filch pushed his way through, grumpily telling the children to shove off. "What are you all doing out here, no gatherings in the halls, I'll put you all on... Mrs. Norris?"

The caretaker froze for a moment, staring at the body of his cat, and then let out a wail as he rushed forward.

"What happened here!?"

"That is what we're here to determine, Argus." Dumbledore said calmly.

Filch looked around, eyes lighting on Harry, Draco's screaming coming immediately to mind. "What did you do to my CAT!?"

"I... I didn't do anything!" Harry protested.

"And yet you were here when we all arrived," Severus Snape said silkily.

"We were just going back to our rooms!"

"And skip the feast in the great hall?"

"We were invited to Nick's death day party!" Harry protested again, looking for all the school to be wallowing, lost in the events.

Xander stepped back, not really caring about it right then. He had the same morbid curiosity as anyone, but while Hermione seemed to be alright, he was worried about Wednesday.

"Hey," He nudged her, "Are you ok?"

She didn't look at him, her eyes fixed on the cat's stiff body. "Something's not right."

"I think we sort of established that."

"No. That's not what I meant." She said, eyes glaring at the cat. "There was death in the air, Alexander. I could feel it."

"Cat looks pretty dead to me."

She shook her head, "No. It's not."

"Argus, your cat isn't dead."

Xander twisted back as Albus made that pronouncement, the echoing sound of Lockhart yelling 'I knew it!' going unheeded by most.

"She's not?" Argus looked up, hopeful.

"Merely petrified." Albus confirmed, frowning pensively.

Xander again tuned out the others, focusing on Wednesday. "How'd you know that?"

She gave him a flat look, "I know death."

"Oookay," Xander said slowly, "You remember what I told you last year about the creep factor? The bell at the top of the meter just dinged."

Wednesday paid him no mind, however, as the crowd moved away from them and followed Dumbledore toward the DADA offices. She looked at the blood on the wall, then shook her head. "It wanted death. It was calling for it, for a painful death. Why did it show mercy?"

"What?" Xander asked, looking around to see if anyone was listening. He didn't like the way everyone was ready to jump on Harry as the culprit, and couldn't help but feel that Wednesday might be setting herself up for the same. "What it?"

She let out a slow breath, then looked at him steadily for a moment.

"The serpent."

Then she turned and was gone.

Xander watched her go, hands going out in plaintive confusion. "Serpent? What serpent!?"

* * *

The castle had little else to speak of in the coming days, the rumors of the Chamber of Secrets were on everyone's lips as the aftermath of Halloween rolled over them all. In history of Magic, Hermione actually managed to talk old Prof Binns into recounting some of the legend before he droned off about Goblin's again.

After classes, Hermione was noticeably absent from their normal study hours, leaving Xander and Wednesday to themselves. Which seemed to Xander to leave him all alone, as Wednesday had become even more focused than her normal self, leaving him out in the cold.

He turned back to his Grimoire, learning spells as the fancy struck him, mostly looking for the cool ones. He tried his hand at Arithmancy, the concept of developing his own spells being incredibly cool to him, but found that he wasn't much better at magical math than he was at regular math, and he'd tested pretty low there.

So, for the moment, he moved that aside and started looking into other types of magic for fun. The Grimoire had a really excellent index system, in which all he had to do was whisper what he was looking for and the book would fly to the appropriate page, and even provide a list of books in the library on the topic.

While he had been looking through for creating spells, Xander got sidetracked by enchanting objects, then was immediately enthralled by a single notation at the very bottom of that page.

The Magic of Body Art.

Xander blinked. Magical Tattoos? So cool.

Unfortunately the book only had a very brief discussion of one example, which kind gave Xander the creeps. A Spell known as the Dark Mark, which had been used by Mr. Mold in his Shorts during his reign of terror over a decade earlier. It described the mark in detail, surprisingly, listing it as a means of summoning the Lord's minions, punishing those who failed the Lord, and possibly even providing the Lord with information about those who had been marked.

The hows weren't listed, though, just some speculation on the methods. According to Evans, who had seemed to have done the majority of the research on the topic, the Mark had to be a compilation of several spells from multiple fields of magic. One of the fundamental cornerstones, in her opinion, was the Protean Charm, which originated from a school of magic not commonly used by European Wizards.

The Sympathetic magic of the charm would allow the lord to affect any other Dark Mark, as long as he had access to at least one. From there the spell work was presumed to be fairly simple, though according to Evans the Lord had managed to somehow lock the spells in such a way as no one had yet discovered how to unlock it.

The concept was cool, Xander thought, not that he had any interest in creating dark marks for himself or anyone else. Still, he found the bibliography for the subject and started pulling books out of the library. Unlike most of his preferred areas of interest, almost everything on magical tattoo work was actually in the open area of the library and not in the restricted, so Xander soon found himself happily learning all there was to know about the art and magic of body pictures.

Which, actually, wasn't as much as he'd hoped.

Most magical tattoos were, literally, magical tattoos. They had no powers, or anything really cool, they just moved around the body like their real world counterparts might, and looked cool. Xander had no real interest in that, however, since he really didn't understand the idea of marking one's body with something permanent just for cosmetics. What if his taste changed in the future? When he was five he loved the care bears on TV, but the idea of one of those printed on his chest was really kinda disturbing at twelve.

And so he was about to give up the avenue of reading when he came across one spell, buried deep in an old tome that had more dust on it than paper.

To Charm an Image with the effect of a spell.

That was more like it, Xander decided, and he dove into some of the coolest reading since he had discovered comic books when he was four.

* * *

Life moved on at the Castle, however, and within a few days things were slowly coming back to normal as the school prepared for the next Quidditch match of the season. The Gryffs were playing this time around, against Slytherin, and that all but guaranteed an exciting match. Xander found himself pressed into attending as part of the Slytherin group, ostensibly to cheer on their new seeker, Draco Malfoy.

Much to her dismay, Xander had succeeded in guilting Wednesday into joining him, so that he'd have someone to talk to, er, talk at. Even if she never said a word back, Xander was pretty sure she'd be more intelligent company than most of the rest in his section.

The game got underway more or less normally, with the usual high flying and heavy handed play from the two antagonistic teams. Immediately the crowds were treated to a show of aerial acrobatics from Harry as to give them all shivers as he dodged a particularly insistent bludger that seemed bent on turning him to paste.

The game went on, scoring climbing, and it became clear to everyone save Madame Hooch apparently, that something was up with said bludger.

"Why don't they stop the game?" Wednesday asked, sounding only mildly curious. "As I am to understand, that thing is obviously been tampered with."

Xander shrugged, "Don't know."

"Maybe the Slytherin's have it right," She shrugged, "Cheating is part of the game. Curious, I had thought that these people believed otherwise."

Xander winced as one of the Gryff chasers took a hit from the other bludger while the twins were covering Harry. "That had to hurt."

"Indeed. It's a more interesting game than I had believed."

Xander chuckled dryly as the time out ran out, and the game began again. In seconds the bludger was chasing Harry down again as he swooped and twisted in the air to evade it. Xander wished that he could fly half as well as Harry, but knew that there was some serious talent packed into the scrawny kid and just had to admire it from the ground level.

"Why has he stopped?" Wednesday asked calmly.

Xander shrugged, then followed Harry's gaze to where Draco was floating on his broom, taunting Harry as the Golden Snitch floated just by his head. Xander groaned softly, shaking his head, and couldn't help but imagine just how scary the world would be if Draco Malfoy really was as good as he thought he was.

"He had better move now..." Wednesday shook her head mournfully as the bludger slashed out of nowhere, slamming Harry around, "Too late."

Harry careened about, heading for the ground in a hurry as Draco seemed to wake up. They two almost crashed in midair, then Harry slammed into the soft ground and seemed to stick there. There was a hush as everyone watched the players rush his position, then Harry shifted and looked down at his hand in a daze. He lifted it slightly, then seemed to pass out as Wood arrived and held his hand up to show the Snitch secured in it.

The crowd screamed, but no as loud as Harry, who let out a wail that could only be of one dying it seemed. People hushed again as the teachers arrived, Lockhart leading the way with his wand already drawn.

"Step aside everyone!" Lockhart called dramatically, "Just a broken arm, I can fix it with a simple charm..."

Harry murmured something, shaking his head, and Lockhart laughed genially. "He doesn't know what he's saying, folks... one moment boy, I'll have it fixed in a jiff..."

The Professor leveled his wand at Harry's arm, began to flick it through the air as he opened his mouth to speak, and then screamed as his arm broke in three places. There was a shocked hush as Lockhart screamed pitiably on the ground next to Harry, who seemed to only want to move away from the Professor.

Xander, in the stands, meanwhile glanced at Wednesday who was sliding her wand away.

"Didn't know you cared about Harry," he said.

"I do not. I, however, care a great deal less about that fool."

"Fair enough. Teach me that one?"

Wednesday considered for a moment, then nodded curtly.

"Cool."

* * *

The excitement over the match only lasted a few hours, however, before it was eclipsed by something far more sinister.

The mysterious agent of the Chamber had struck again, and this time it wasn't a cat.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The school descended into a panic that didn't abate for the rest of the week when the news that Colin Creevy had too been found petrified, his omnipresent camera glued to his face and an expression of naked fear visible on what could be seen of his features. Xander didn't know the kid at all, he was a muggle born Gryff, which made him pretty much the last person in the school who would be seen with a snake, but even so he felt bad for the guy. Everyone said that being petrified was like going to sleep, but it still was going to seriously suck since the mandrake root needed to cure them was several weeks or more from being full grown.

At their weekly session with professor Hardy, however, more questions seemed to come up than were answered when Xander asked about the situation.

"They're waiting for what?" Hardy asked, blinking.

"The mandrakes are too young to mix the reversal potion," Xander said, frowning. "Couldn't they just call a magical hospital? There are some of those, right?"

"There are." Hardy nodded, frowning. "Someone is running around petrifying students?"

"Not someone." Wednesday corrected, "Something. A serpent."

The American professor raised an eyebrow, "A Basilisk? Surely not. You'd have seen deaths by now if you had one of those on the loose."

Wednesday glared at the table, "That has bothered me as well."

Xander shivered, "The lack of death is a good thing in my eye."

"Quite." Hardy just suppressed a shudder of his own.

Addamses were hard to deal with at the best of times. Their reactions to stress were legendary, however, and Hardy wanted nothing more than to get clear of the girl as soon as possible. He, however, had a responsibility to the two children in his care.

"No, it's not likely a basilisk." He said after a moment, "More likely you've got one of those death eater twits, or one of their kids, playing around with black magic."

Wednesday just shrugged.

"Still, I'll see what I can do. Read to chapter eight for our next session, please?" He said, nodding to the children. "Alright. Be on your way."

After the two had left, Hardy withdrew a small compact from his pocket and flipped it open.

"Salem Head Office." He said into the mirror.

The mirror buzzed, once and then twice, and then again and again for several moments. Finally it stopped and shimmered to show a tired looking face staring back out.

"Hardy? Do you know what time it is?"

"I'm at Hogwarts, Arthur." Hardy said curtly. "They've had an incident."

"Are the kids ok?"

"They're fine, but some local by the name of Creevy got himself petrified. Second incident this year." Hardy explained.

"Oh lord. Some idiot playing with potions?"

"Maybe. I was thinking one of their terrorist cells, maybe the kid of a member," Hardy admitted, "The Addams girl thinks it's a basilisk."

Arthur shuddered visibly in the small mirror. "Sweet Franklin, I hope not."

"I can't see it myself. You know how those things are, we'd be neck deep in bodies in a school this packed."

Arthur nodded, "You're right, but don't underestimate the girl. Those Addams, well if there's one thing they know it's dangerous magical creatures."

"I'll bear it in mind, in the meantime could you put in a call to the CMDC for me, see if they've got any reversal potion on ice?"

"I'll call them right away." Arthur promised, "Are you pulling the kids out?"

"Not yet. Like I said, it looks like it's those Death Muncher twits. Neither of our kids are targets for that sort of thing. Killing American wizards is a damned good way to bring the ICW into play, and they don't want that level of pressure on them anymore than the British ministry does."

"Agreed. Alright, keep a closer eye on Hogwarts for a while though. I'll get a hold of the CMDC right away."

"Thank you, Arthur."

The dean of the Salem Academy nodded curtly and the mirror flashed once before becoming a simple makeup mirror again. Hardy flipped it closed, then decided to speak with the headmaster before he took a portkey back to Durmstrang.

* * *

The time sped past, and after a couple weeks the worst of the tensions began to calm down again, though the underlying tension just continued to grow. Potions class was increasingly a trial as the Gryffindor contingent tightened ranks, such that Xander was rarely able to speak with Hermione now.

He locked down, just doing his own work and basically keeping his head down while occasionally regretting coming back. Wednesday was growing more and more distant, not that most people could tell. He could see it though, and was worried about her, but the word unreachable had been invented with Wednesday Addams in mind.

Xander worried and tried to talk to her, but she just ignored him most of the time, and glared at him like he was some insignificant insect the remaining times. Finally he just gave up, sitting next to her silently and just hoped that she would talk to him.

Christmas was approaching when one morning, during mail call, a large eagle winged into the Hall and zeroed in on Xander's position. It circled him once, dropped a letter, then left when it was sure Xander had picked it up.

"You got mail?" Draco sneered, "You never get mail."

Xander shot him a glare, then turned the envelope over and read the address. "Weird."

"What is it?"

Xander glanced over to where Daphne was leaning in his direction, obviously curious.

"I dunno." Xander shrugged, tearing it open.

He pulled the pages open and started to read, his eyes almost crossing as he tried to understand the wording. "Whoa. I thought you only saw this kind of writing in bad lawyer movies."

Daphne got curious and moved over to his side, "May I?"

"Huh? Sure." Xander passed her the first page while he turned to one that had been handwritten and began to read.

A moment later Daphne looked up, confused, "This says that it's an advance on royalty payments for a medical patent?"

Xander stared at her, "in MY name?"

Daphne nodded.

"Weird." Xander shuffled through the pages, then blinked as he located the receipt. He stared, blanking out until Daphne leaned over his shoulder.

"Oh. My. God." Daphne swallowed. "Is that real?"

"I don't know. It says it's a draft on a Gringotts of America account." Xander said, paled. "That's a LOT of zeroes."

"What did you invent!?"

"I don't KNOW!?"

The two of them tore through the papers, attracting attention from the rest of the table. Finally Daphne looked up, a page in her hand, frowning. "Xander... What is 'Viagra'?"

Xander frowned, "I have no clue."

"Here's the patent," Daphne said, handing it to him.

Xander took it, reading through it rapidly, actually growing more pale by the second until he matched Draco in color.

"I'm gonna KILL him."

"Xander?"

"I'm gonna KILL HIM!" Xander snarled, startling basically the entire hall.

"Who?" Daphne demanded, totally lost.

"My Uncle! He did this!"

"He invented Viagra?"

"No! He sold my formula!"

Daphne looked confused, "And stole your money, right?"

"No, he put that in my name..." Xander said, tearing through more pages.

Daphne looked around, a little lost. "Uh... What's the problem then?"

"Problem!? Problem!? The problem is..." Xander looked around suddenly stopping as he realized everyone was staring at him.

He rapidly turned red enough to match a Weasley's hair, swallowing as he stared around.

"Nothing." He whispered. "No problem."

"But..."

"No problem!" Xander exclaimed, grabbing all the pages and crumpling them to his chest. "There's no problem!"

The school watched as Xander scuttled back from the table and then bolted from the hall, clutching the papers to his chest as he ran.

* * *

Xander ran back to his room, barely able to breath, and slumped on his bed as he reread the patent application. He pulled out his potions book, flipping over to the failed experiments page, and his heart sank as he confirmed his worst fears. His Uncle, the man he trusted, had sold him out. Xander knew he'd never live this down, not when people found out what he'd invented. He didn't know much about sex, but he knew enough to know that this was gonna come back and bite him in the ass later.

It was a LOT of money, mind you.

Xander stared at the bank draft again, barely able to believe the zeroes after the one printed there. He checked again, confirming that it was indeed his name.

I'm gonna kill him.

Xander took a breath, shaking his head.

No. Death is too good for him.

I'm gonna *PRANK* him.

He had all year now to plan for it. But Sam WAS going to pay. Oh yes, he was going to pay.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Rumors spread fast concerning Xander's explosion in the Great Hall, but since there had been several close witnesses, including Draco Malfoy, pretty much the entire school knew, or thought they knew, the real story behind the explosion. There were twisted versions in which Xander was flat broke now, his money stolen by an evil uncle, and others in which he was rich, the sole heir to an uncle's fortune, but basically everyone knew that an Uncle and Money were involved.

Thanks in part to Daphne they knew it was Money with a capital 'M' as well, but Xander didn't really blame her since she had been trying to curb some of Draco's more ludicrous stories. As a story that approximated the real one began to filter out, Xander found himself the target of various levels of interest from students who had ignored him before.

After barely evading the attentions of a fifth year girl, Xander ducked into the library the next afternoon and was pleased to see both Hermione and Wednesday at their usual table.

"Hey," He said, smiling pleasantly as he sat down.

"Hey."

Hermione smiled back.

"Hello."

Wednesday did not.

That was ok, of course, she never did. Xander rubbed the back of his head, shaking slightly. "Man this is nuts."

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, frowning, "There are stories all over school about you."

"Yeah, I know." Xander sighed, "The latest ones are closest to the truth, I guess."

"You invented a medical potion and have been paid a fortune for it?" Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Ah... yeah, those ones." Xander admitted, "Though I wouldn't call it 'medical' exactly."

"What is it?" Hermione perked up, bouncing a little.

"Please," Xander begged, "Don't ask. Please."

"But..." Hermione pouted. "But why?"

"Cause I didn't do it on purpose, Herms," Xander muttered, "And really, it was a humiliating lab accident, that's all."

"What would you call it?" Wednesday asked.

"Huh?" Xander and Hermione both looked at her, confused.

"You said you wouldn't call it medical exactly. What would you call it?"

"Judging by my Uncle?" Xander replied sourly, "Recreational."

Hermione screwed up her face in confusion as even Wednesday looked a little at sea by the comment.

"Please, just don't ask anymore, ok?" Xander begged again, "I can't tell it to you two, it's too embarrassing."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, looking over at Hermione, "Now I simply HAVE to know."

"Me too." Hermione happily agreed.

Xander moaned, slumping at the table, covering his head with his hands.

"Show us the patent."

"What?" He looked up, peaking at Wednesday from under his arm.

"Of course!" Hermione squealed, "You don't have to tell us, just show us the patent, we should be able to work it out."

"You think?" Xander asked doubtfully. "I don't know, it's pretty complicated."

Wednesday gave him a glare that would melt steel, while Hermione perked up even more at the word complicated. Xander sighed, drawing the papers from under his robe.

Wednesday raised her eyebrow again, "You have it on you?"

"Leave this in *Slytherin* territory?" Xander asked incredulously.

The dark girl tipped her head to acknowledge the point, taking the papers from him as she and Hermione moved closer together to pour over them. Xander sighed, leaving them to it, and opened up the Grimoire to work on some of his other personal projects.

That was what he loved about this school more than anything else, Xander had found. The fact that the subject matter was really only a base for doing your own thing. Magic was all about creativity, working with things only comic book writers ever got to play with in the 'real' world. The classes were important, but they were just prep courses for living day to day in the magical world. It was what students could do when they moved PAST the classes that was utterly and totally cool.

Xander found that he loved the idea of Spell Crafting and it's related spheres of magic, which really meant he had to learn pretty much every sort of magic he could since spell crafting, artificing, and enchanting all required first-hand knowledge of a vast array of spells.

Right now he was working on the arithmantic formulas for charging a rune from a caster's own magical core. He'd been able to lift large sections of the work from the rune and warding work done by Harrow and Jacobs had done for him at the start of the year. Most of it was pretty similar, actually, since he was working on what was, essentially a ward you could draw on your own body.

It wasn't quite as simple as that, though, Xander had found quickly. There was warnings about doing it, actually, since the runes would permanently lower the wearer's magical core. Additionally, wards were 'always on' so to speak and that would make all sorts of daily experiences rather inconvenient. Xander thought that those two things were the reason very little had been done in this area of magic, at least as far as he could tell.

The Dark Mark was a piece of work for much of the same reasons. It actually put a constant drain on anyone who wore it, albeit a very slight drain. Xander rather suspected that the drain was bigger than Evans guessed, though, cause he knew that if he was going to go the evil overlord route he would put a tap into the mark and use the magic drained for himself.

That wasn't what he was working on, of course. Xander just tended to have giggling fits at the thought, and he felt he needed some cheering up. He was trying to put a valve on the charging rune, and create a magical analogue to a battery so that the runes would only draw power when they were charging, and would shut off when full.

The math, however, was a nightmare.

He knew he had to learn it, he desperately WANTED to learn it, but Xander had a sinking sensation that it was just beyond him. Beyond him now, and maybe forever.

"What's wrong?"

Xander looked up, realizing that he had been gnawing on his fingers as he scribbled down another attempt at solving the formula he was working on.

"Nothing." He muttered.

Wednesday merely stared at him until he broke.

"It's the math." He sighed, "I don't get the math."

Hermione looked up from where she was pouring over the patent information, ears perking at the mention of math. "What math? We don't have any classes in arithmancy yet."

"I know, I'm trying to figure it out anyway." Xander muttered.

"Let us see." Wednesday said, reaching out a hand.

He sighed and handed the page over, on one level happy to be distracting them from the patent information, but on the other a little embarrassed that he needed help. The two read his notes for a long moment before saying anything.

"Xander, some of this is incredibly advanced." Hermione blinked, looking up.

"Yeah, I know, I lifted stuff from a warding scheme." Xander replied, "I'm trying to adapt it to create a magical battery."

"This will not work," Wednesday said after a moment, "The warding formulas are not designed to tap a person's magical core."

Xander grimaced, glancing at Hermione, who nodded.

"She's right." Hermione frowned, "The arithmantically important numbers are totally different when dealing with a human. What are you trying to charge?"

"Nothing in particular, yet," Xander sighed, shaking his head. "I just want to be able to charge *something*, and stop after the charge is full."

"Won't that drain off the magical energy when it stops?" Hermione frowned, looking up, "I read that you runes are constantly charging."

"Yeah, but that's when the battery comes in," Xander said, "We should be able to store power, I mean it can't be that hard? Normal folk invented batteries ages ago."

"Over two thousand years ago, actually." Wednesday said, "The original versions were used for limited electroplating on ancient jewelry."

"See?" Xander said, "If normal people can do it, we should be able to."

"It's not the same thing," Hermione complained, "electricity isn't stored, exactly. Batteries store chemical energy and then turn it INTO electricity. You can't just store chemicals that turn metal into magic, Xander."

Xander sighed as Wednesday nodded.

"She is correct," The dark girl replied, "It will not work."

Xander finally gave up, nodding, "Alright. Thanks for the help."

"I'm sorry, Xander," Hermione apologized. "I wish I could tell you what you want to know."

"No, it's ok." Xander forced a grin he really didn't feel. "I needed to know before I wasted more time on it."

"You're trying to work too far ahead," Hermione stated, hesitating.

Xander snorted, "Says the girl who's already read up to, what? Sixth year books? Seventh?"

"Fifth." She corrected, irritated. "I'm working on sixth and seventh this summer."

Xander chuckled, a little more real this time, and grinned at her, "Don't change, Herms. I need my Willow Fix."

She scowled at him, "I don't think I like the sound of that."

He just smirked and took back his papers, incidentally retrieving the patent information at the same time. He glanced longingly at the worthless formulas for a moment then slid the pages into the back of the Grimoire under 'Failed Ideas' and closed the book with a sigh.

* * *

Class was buzzing later that day when Xander attended potions, but thankfully he was entirely off the minds of his classmates. No, they were now excited about the upcoming Dueling Club that had been announced. Xander was mildly interested himself, as he knew a couple spells for that sort of thing already, but was still a little down over his failure with the formulas and wasn't paying much attention.

The class progressed as normal until towards the end when Crabbe's cauldron exploded, covering much of the class, Xander included, in an engorgement potion similar to the twins ton tongue toffee, only with none of the precision. Xander found himself with a giant left arm, and ear that was flopping down like something out of Dumbo as much of the class wailed under similar afflictions.

"Everyone calm down!" Snape instantly yelled, using a sonorous charm on his throat. It got their attention and they all stilled, "If you've been splattered with the spell come to the front for a reversal draught."

Everyone filed down, Xander included, and were quickly set right as Snape fumed and stomped up to Crabbe's cauldron. He tipped it up and his eyes almost literally flared when a burned out firecracker fell clear of the pot.

Xander winced, every safety lesson he'd learned while working on his own was just screaming at him that he'd gotten off really lucky. He'd been closer to Crabbe than he really wanted to think about.

"When I find the person who did this," Snape hissed, "I *WILL* see them expelled."

The dark potions master looked around, eyes lighting on where Harry was sitting and resting there for a long moment. Finally, after the moment passed, Snape spun away. "Class dismissed."

Xander glanced at Harry, but shrugged and put it down to Snape's apparent hatred of the guy. He'd never done anything that stupid before, at least not with no sign of heroic sacrifice to be found. Xander glared at the cauldron for a moment and went over the ingredients for the standard engorgement potion in his mind.

Luckily there was nothing flammable or particularly unstable. Xander shuddered at what would have happened if it had been either his, or the twins, specific versions of the same potion. He quietly packed up his stuff and filed out with the rest.


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander met up with Wednesday that night, two among the many students who had elected to see what the new 'Dueling Club' was all about. They made their way to the appointed place, noting the crowd, and took over a section in the corner away from the worst of it.

"This should be cool."

"I hope it's not some inane club intended to promote Professor Lockhart," Wednesday said dryly.

"Nah." Xander shook his head, thinking about the Defense Professor. "The guy's a coward. No way he'd put himself at the end of anyone else's wand."

"People do strange things in pursuit of obsession."

Xander was about to respond when he noted the door open and his stomach dropped as none other than Lockhart himself came prancing in.

"Crap."

"Indeed."

The two of them sat through the Professor's normal long winded introduction of his favorite person, himself, their expectations dropping by the second. He finally nodded across the hall with a flash of a smile, "And just in case things get out of hand, I've invited the school nurse to be here to help out. Please, a little polite applause for Madame Pomfrey."

The entire room applauded, considerably louder than the sparse reception Lockhart had received, which earned a frown from the toothy professor. He shook it off quickly though, inviting the school nurse up to the front.

"Now, perhaps we should show the children what we'll be practicing," he bowed with a flourish as the matronly woman stepped up, lips puckered in a frown, then winked at the students. "Have no fear, you'll still have your nurse when we're done."

Xander rolled his eyes, then did a double take and rolled them again when he noted Hermione staring with a glaze in her eyes as she watched the Professor. Wednesday watched his gaze and nodded minutely.

"Yes. She's still infatuated with him."

"Still?" Xander blinked, "How long has that been going on?"

"Boys." Wednesday muttered, shaking her head. "If you weren't so tied up in your own little games, you would have noticed it at the beginning of term."

Xander frowned. That long?

"Wow." He finally said, then frowned, "Why?"

"I'm sure I have no idea."

They were distracted then as Lockhart and Pomfrey stood across from each other on the platform, wands out.

"On three then," Lockhart chuckled, waving his wand around carelessly. "One... two... three!"

They both snapped their wands forward, snapping out the incantation in sharp tones.

"Expelliarmus!"

Jets of light crossed the platform, striking each of the adults, yet while Lockhart's arm snapped out wildly and his wand flew across the room, Pomfrey managed to hold onto hers. There was a quiet moment, then Lockhart smiled widely.

"There you have it, children. The disarming curse, and I kept my word you see... took it easy on the lovely lady. Thank you so much for your help, madam."

He poured on the charm and the nurse blushed a little in response.

"Not at all, professor."

"Alright, into pairs then." Lockhart said, "practice the spell as you saw, curse to disarm ONLY!"

Xander glanced at Wednesday, who nodded practically imperceptibly, and the two of them cut a bit of space out for themselves. They were soon tossing the curse back and forth, with varying degrees of success, as they practiced the spell. It wasn't long before a disturbance across the room distracted them, and everyone else, however.

"I said disarm only! Disarm only!"

They stopped, glancing over as Lockhart rushed into the middle of what looked like a brawl between Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy. As he broke it up, Draco said something they couldn't hear from across the room and Ron turned ever redder than his hair.

Ron snapped his wand out, yelling, "Take this you turd!"

The spell charged through the Gryff's wand, but something went wrong as it had all session and the wand misfired. A sparkling pulse of magic exploded out the side and drove straight through the crowd and at Xander. He snapped his wand up in response, barely able to think, "Protego!"

A thin, barely formed shield pulsed into being, intercepting the spell before it could hit him, but the power of his shield was too little and it burst an instant later. It had the effect, however, of deflecting the spell to one side and directly into the unusually surprised face of Wednesday Addams.

The Addams Scion gasped in shock rather than anything else as her head snapped back, raven hair haloing around her as she staggered back a step and went down to one knee. Xander lunged in her direction, sliding to his knees at her side.

"Are you ok!?"

Wednesday glared evenly at him and Xander grimaced to see her nose had grown several times it's proper size. Several people were giggling madly around him as Madame Pomfrey pushed through.

"It'll be fine, my dear, I'll have that fixed in just a..."

"I'm fine." Wednesday said coldly, waving the nurse aside. The giggling stopped as several people, including Pomfrey, gasped as her nose visibly began to shrink again. In a few seconds the enlarged nose had returned to normal and the nurse was stammering to explain it.

Wednesday ignored her, however, as did Xander. The duo focused on Ron, who was staring with an interesting look of horror on his face as the terror of the Ravenclaw second years and a Snake stalked in his direction. Before they got halfway there Harry had moved in beside Ron, stepping a little forward to protect the red head.

"It was an accident."

"Accidents happen a lot around him lately." Xander growled.

"It's not my fault!" Ron blurted, "My wand..."

"Should be replaced." Xander ground out.

Ron flushed, "I... I haven't been able to get to Diagon Alley and..."

"Need I remind you that accidents can happen... to anyone?" Wednesday asked darkly, causing several people around her to pale.

Hermione, swallowing, stepped in between them. "He didn't mean it, really..."

"He's a menace, Hermione." Xander muttered, then shook his head.

Wednesday glanced at him and seemed to come to a conclusion. "Indeed. Come, Alexander. I think we've learned what little there was to learn here."

The two turned and marched out of the room as people moved out of their way.

Harry looked over at Ron and let out a sigh, "You need a new wand, mate."

Ron just looked a little sick, but didn't argue. Hermione looked torn for a moment then looked back at her friends. "I have to go for a minute."

She rushed off, leaving them confused.

"Girls." Ron muttered, shrugging.

* * *

That evening, after the dueling club had let out with no further incidents, Ron and Harry were making their way back to the Gryffindor tower when a shadowed form stepped out into their path and stopped them. Both went for their wands as they recognized Xander.

"You want trouble, Harris you snake, we'll give it to you." Ron threatened, his wand wobbling a little as he shook it.

"Weasley, the safest place in this entire school is staring down the business end of your wand." Xander countered, rolling his eyes.

Ron flushed his hand shaking even more, but before he could do anything Xander through something at him. He caught it on reflex, dropping his wand in the process, then winced as it hit the ground.

"Yeah. That's not a great reflex either, Weasley." Xander rolled his eyes. "Might want to work on that."

Ron flushed, then glanced down at the object Xander had thrown him. "What's this?"

He shook it, then his eyes widened as he recognized the sound of Galleons rattling inside. He looked up, confused.

"I want to buy your wand."

"What?" Ron blurted, "Why? It's broken!"

"Exactly. I want to find out a bit on how they're made," Xander said, "And I'm sure as hell not going to take *mine* apart. Yours is already broken, you need a new one, I need one I don't care about. There's fifteen galleons there. That should cover a new wand."

Ron swallowed, looking down at the money pouch. "I..."

Xander just waved off what he was saying, already moving to leave. "Think about it. When I get back from the holidays you either give me my money back, or you give me your old wand. I don't *really* care which, but if you 'accidentally' curse Wednesday or Hermione again I'm going to take it out of your hide as if you did it on purpose."

Ron didn't get another comment out before Xander was gone. He looked over at Harry, face confused. "What do I do, mate?"

Harry was torn, uncertain what to say. His best friend was notoriously uptight about money, something Harry had yet to find a way around. If he accepted this from Harris, well all the better in Harry's opinion. Harry didn't want to make it seem like he was trying to encourage Ron to accept charity or anything though.

"Well, fifteen galleons is probably a little above market for a broken wand," Harry allowed after a moment.

"Yeah," Ron mumbled, sagging a little.

"On the other hand, I haven't seen too many around." Harry said, thinking about it. "What do wizards do with broken wands anyway?"

Ron seemed a little surprised, "Well... throw them out I suppose. Doesn't happen a lot, though. Most wizards take good care of their wands."

"Well, then it wouldn't be easy for him to get even a broken wand, would it?" Harry said reasonably. "I think he knows it's a bit over the top for price, but I expect he doesn't care."

Ron nodded sourly, "He got all that money, right? Rumors are all over school."

"Not what I meant, mate." Harry corrected, "You hit his friend with a curse..."

"That was an accident!"

"I know that, mate," Harry said placatingly. "The point is, what would you pay to protect Ginny? Or Hermione?"

"You think he doesn't really care about the broken wand?" Ron asked, a twisted look on his face.

"Probably not a lot," Harry admitted, "But who knows? Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind figuring out how a wand is put together myself."

Ron looked at his friend like he was a little batty, "it's a wand, Harry. What's so special about it?"

Harry sighed. Sometimes he really didn't understand people who were raised in the magical world. "Ron, just cause you don't care how it works doesn't mean others feel the same."

* * *

The school's fall session ended shortly after that and Xander met Wednesday at the train as they had agreed.

"Ready?" She asked him as he approached.

"For another holiday with your family? No, but I'll muddle through," Xander grinned.

The dark girl almost smiled at that, not quite giving away her amusement. The Addamses were not as oblivious as it often appeared to outsiders. She, and they, knew that their way of life was far from the accepted norm. They mostly just didn't care. They lived as they chose and would not apologize for it, even by way of explaining themselves to outsiders.

Few such outsiders voluntarily exposed themselves to further contact after the first, however. She was impressed that Xander was coming, even though she knew that his options were limited. International portkeys weren't cheap and, while he did have money now, she didn't think it had quite settled in to his way of thinking.

Still, he could stay at Hogwarts easily enough, yet she had a distinct feeling that he wanted to come with her. The year before he had honestly seemed to enjoy his time, mostly, and he seemed to be looking forward to more.

She just shrugged, "Father is meeting us in London. Apparently the headmaster asked him not to come to the school again... he scared Mr. Filch."

Xander snickered. It figured that Filch would be scared of anyone who seemed to agree with the caretaker's own suggestions concerning the ancient torture devices he was constantly jabbering about.

"Well then, let's catch that train." Xander said with a smile, "We wouldn't want to strain poor Filch's heart any more by missing the ride and making Mr. Addams come fetch us."

"Certainly not." Wednesday agreed solemnly as they made their way to the train.

Xander almost would have sworn he heard the tiniest hint of a giggle in her voice. Almost.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Alexander, my boy!" Gomez Addams boomed cheerfully as Xander and Wednesday stepped off the train, "And my darling Wednesday, we have missed you at home."

"Father." Wednesday nodded, smiling at the exuberant man who was attracting attention all across platform nine and three quarters, "Mother isn't here?"

"She and Thing are seeing to our temporary home."

"The castle again, Sir?" Xander asked.

Gomez glared at him for a long moment.

"Sorry, Gomez." Xander corrected himself with a slight flush.

The wide smile was back in an instant as Gomez swept them both up and bustled them along, "Not this time, my boy. We tried, but some movie company had the place leased. It didn't seem right to push them out for a family vacation."

"Oh?" Xander said, curious but mostly polite.

"Quite. No, we've chosen a place a little closer this time." Gomez stated, grinning widely. "It took some doing, lad, but we've acquired a lovely little chateau right here in London."

"In London?" Xander frowned, thinking, "I didn't think there were any castles in London."

"Your education is frightfully lacking, my boy. The Tower, of course." Gomez winked.

"Tower?" Xander kept racking his brain. The only tower he knew of in London was, "The Tower of London?"

"Precisely!"

Xander frowned again, still thinking very hard. "I'm pretty sure they don't rent that out."

"Course they don't," Gomez replied, "Dreadfully difficult to get a place there too, but with the right application of money, magic, and, well, Charm... anything is possible, as you'll learn. Come now, here's Lurch with the car."

* * *

They were going to be arrested.

That was the only thing that Xander could think as the car pulled up in front of the London monument, and Gomez quickly jumped out and dragged Wednesday and himself along.

"Come along now," The man grinned, leading them toward the old castle set on the river. "Lurch will see to the bags."

It was an incongruous sight, Xander decided as he followed out of morbid curiosity. He was waging with himself on how close they would get before being challenged, but was surprised when Gomez led him both to a slit in the walls that had no guards.

He looked around, curious, "Shouldn't there be guards here? There are everywhere else?"

"Wizard entrance, my boy." Gomez chuckled, "Haven't bothered with guards here in almost twelve years."

"Oh." Xander said, clutching Fenrir to his chest as they moved through the walls. "Then why...?"

"Crown jewels, of course. They were worried Voldy Thingamajig would steal them, took the guards off the day after the celebrations ended." Gomez said with a shrug, "Ministry is a touch weird, if you ask me."

There was a mind numbing statement. Gomez Addams considered someone a touch weird.

"Ah, here we are." Gomez said, stepping out into a hallway that was as dark and dank as the Hogwarts dungeons. "The Royal Wizard's Suite."

"Royal?"

"Of course." Wednesday spoke up for the first time, "The British monarchy has always had a Wizard to attend them, since Merlin."

"They don't use these rooms, now, of course." Gomez grinned, "And the Wizarding world doesn't have much care for them, which is why we were able to procure their use for the holidays."

"But... isn't this sort of, historical?"

"Alexander," Wednesday said flatly, "How many wizards do you know who care about the 'muggle' side of the world, even the royalty?"

She had a point, Xander supposed, but it still felt... disrespectful to be walking around here like they owned the place, let alone living here for a couple weeks.

"Precisely." Gomez said, "To most wizards this is a dirty little secret you don't talk about in polite company."

"They seem to respect Merlin." Xander said, frowning.

"It's always easy to respect a giant, my boy," Gomez said, oddly solemn in that moment, "no matter what his quirks. Especially if he's safely dead and not around to embarrass you anymore."

Xander shook his head.

"So on the real world side of this," he said, "The Tower is a historical landmark, protected and guarded... and on the magic side... what? You can rent a room?"

"Not quite so crass," a new voice entered the conversation, and they looked up to see Mortisha approaching, "however that mostly covers things."

"Tish," Gomez smiled widely. "I've missed you."

"You were only gone a few hours."

"A few hours of eternity, my love."

Mortisha smiled, a hint of amusement in her look but mostly just adoration, "Mon amour."

Gomez growled, shaking his head from side to side before looking up at the ceiling and letting out a howl. "Tish! That's French!"

The man rushed across, plucking up his wife's arm, and began to kiss passionately along in as she patiently let him indulge for a moment. Then with a wave of her hand she gently pushed him away, "Gomez, later. The children."

"What?" Gomez looked up, lost and confused. His expression cleared up and he smiled regretfully, "Of course, my love."

"Wednesday," Mortisha nodded to her daughter.

"Mother."

"How was school?"

"Fine." Wednesday replied, "Alexander invented a potion and was paid a small fortune for it."

"Really?" Mortisha looked over at Xander, "What kind of potion?"

Xander turned beat red, alternating between glaring at Wednesday and swallowing hard. Wednesday, of course, didn't blink in response. "I... uh, well it was really an accident, so it's not a big deal..."

"He won't tell anyone," Wednesday said, "I believe he's embarrassed."

"Embarrassed? Nonsense!" Gomez declared, "You got paid, right lad? That's the American way, how could you be embarrassed?"

Xander shook his head, clutching Fenrir so tightly the pup yelped.

Mortisha cocked her head slightly, eyes focusing on the dog. "Is that Fenrir?"

"Uh, yes ma'am."

"How curious."

Xander blinked, "What?"

"He hasn't changed in a year." Mortisha said, sounding puzzled.

"By Jove, you're right." Gomez said with a crooked grin as he drew out a cigar. "What sort of dog is that anyway?"

"He is a Dire Wolf." Wednesday supplied.

"Wolf!?" Xander yelped, holding the puppy out from him and staring at it. Fenrir barked once and panted back at him. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I believed that you knew." Wednesday said dryly, "You did choose him, after all."

Gomez snapped his fingers, "Dire wolf, of course! That explains it!"

"It does?" Mortisha asked, sounding confused.

"Doesn't it?" Gomez asked.

"Explains what!?" Xander asked, hopelessly lost.

"I don't know, my boy," Gomez admitted with a grin. "What does it explain, Tish?"

"Really, Gomez, doesn't it seem odd that the puppy hasn't changed in a year?"

"Now that you mention it, that is passing strange." Gomez frowned, "I don't know much about puppies though, creepy little things."

Fenrir barked once, then growled at Gomez.

"Gomez!" Mortisha chastised him, "Be polite. Fenrir is Alexander's guest."

"Of course, you're right, Cadida. I sometimes lose all manners," Gomez sighed, then looked evenly at the puppy. "I apologize."

The dog seemed to consider than, then yipped once and turned away.

Mortisha examined the dog intently for a moment, "Even a Dire Wolf ages far faster than a human, he should be near full growth by now. How curious."

"Is something wrong with my Dog?" Xander asked, voice worried.

"I don't know." Mortisha admitted, considering it. "I am hardly an expert, but he seems fit and hale. Gomez, what do you think?"

The Addams patriarch considered for a moment, then held up a finger. "Cousin Itt."

"Of course, darling, you're a genius."

"Cousin Who?"

"No, Itt. Who is the family Doctor." Gomez said, shaking his head. "Unreliable fellow. Never around when you want him, can't get rid of him when you don't."

"Gomez."

"I'm sorry, Tish, but that fellow is a little strange if you ask me." Gomez replied, shaking his head.

Mortisha sighed, shaking her head slightly, "I'll put in a call to Cousin Itt. He's a fully certified Master in Care of Magical Creatures."

"Family over achiever, that one," Gomez confirmed. "He'll know what's up."

Xander nodded hesitantly.

"Where are Uncle Fester and Pugsley?" Wednesday asked, now that the issue of the dog had been settled for the moment.

"Sulking." Mortisha said with the slightest hint of exasperation.

"Poor boys," Gomez said with a shrug and a wave of his cigar, "but what can you do? The rental agreement was quite clear, no explosives in the tower."

* * *

Xander settled into his room that night, thinking about what had been said about Fenrir. The call had been put into Cousin Itt, or that, or whatever his name was and they said that it would all work out, but he was a little worried about the pup.

"Are you ok, boy?" Xander asked, looking at the dog as he sat on his bed.

Fenrir yipped once, sounding happy to Xander.

"So why aren't you growing?" Xander asked rhetorically.

Fenrir barked again, several times, leaving Xander in no greater clarity than before. Xander sighed, throwing himself back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He hoped his dog was ok.

There was a draft then, and a chill, and Fenrir began to growl softly from the floor.

Xander sat up fast, eyes wide as he looked around and snagged his wand from the end table. "What is it, boy?"

Fenrir continued to growl, and Xander got his feet, wand leading the way as he looked at the wall the dog was focused on. Xander didn't see anything, and leaned in slowly.

"I don't see any- AHHH!" Xander yelped, falling back on his ass as a ghostly shape came through the wall, holding its head in her arms. He scrambled backward for a moment, holding his chest, then glared at the form. "You scared the crap out of me, Lady! What the hell!?"


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy nodded to her son as he entered the manor, smiling warmly. "Welcome home, Draco."

"Thank you, mother." The blond boy said, dropping his school trunk to the floor. "Dobby!"

The house elf popped into being, flinching back from the boy, "Yes, Master Draco?"

"Put my trunk in my room, and mind you don't go looking through my things." Draco growled.

"Right away, Master."

The elf and trunk popped away as Narcissa sipped her tea. "Hard semester?"

"No more than usual." Draco said, slumping into his chair.

"Sit straight, Draco," She corrected instantly. "Slovenly posture is for your private rooms, we entertain here. You do not wish to get into that habit."

Draco sighed and shifted until he was sitting up, "Of course."

"You seem perturbed."

"No, not really. Just thinking about things."

"Such as?"

Draco glanced around, as if looking for someone. "Where's Father?"

"Lucius is at the Ministry, he won't be home early."

Draco nodded and sighed, giving Narcissa a clue to what was on his mind. Something he didn't want his father to know about, at least not just now.

"Mother..." The boy suddenly seemed many years younger as he hesitantly spoke up, "I... Why are purebloods better than mudbloods?"

Narcissa raised her eyebrow, both eyes widening in surprise. "Pardon me?"

"I mean, I know we are!" Draco said quickly, hands up as if to stave off punishment, "But I need to know why."

"I am curious," Narcissa said after a moment, "What brings this up?"

"One of my housemates challenged me to answer that question," Draco admitted, "And I still can't. Not the way he wants me to. I know that the reasons have to be there, we ARE better than they are, but I don't know what they are."

She smiled slowly, "Very good, Draco. You're learning to question, be careful however... your father is not the sort who likes to be questioned."

Draco nodded, swallowing.

"But... we are better, right?"

Narcissa smiled a little wider, "Yes Draco. Purebloods are, at least to a degree, superior."

"So... what makes us better?"

"There are many ways to answer that question, most of which I will tell you now, your father does not understand, nor does he care to." She told her son. "I heard a word recently that describes muggle borns far better than the term you tend to prefer. Not mudbloods, Draco... Wildbloods."

Narcissa was shocked when Draco hissed and grimaced at the term. "What's wrong?"

"That's what Harris, the housemate I was talking about, calls them."

Harris. So that was the one who had the book, or it seemed likely. Interesting.

"Well they are," Narcissa replied, then shrugged, "Or at least those who are not descended from a squib line are. Consider a well-bred hound, Draco, and compare it to a fox. The fox is a wild blood, the hound a pureblood. You can, to a certain degree, predict how a Hound will perform based on its bloodline. You can even, if you are very careful, influence how a hound's blood line will develop."

"And... that's good?"

Narcissa smiled thinly, "Sic a hound on a fox and see which one is more likely to come out on top. The fox is generally quite lucky to escape with its life."

Draco nodded slowly, understanding at least slightly.

"There are more factors, however. Blood traits, such as Speaker talents, follow a bloodline. Muggle-borns almost never develop even the weakest of these," Narcissa continued. "Parseltongue is a known trait of Salazar Slytherin's line, for example."

"The Dark Lord." Draco said, nodding.

"Precisely. Rowena's bloodline has been rumored to have strong instances of Second Sight, perhaps ironic since Rowena herself was a powerful detractor of seers and the like," Narcissa said, "though it's perhaps because she herself suffered from an uncontrolled gift. Each of the founder's lines had powerful gifts, as do many of the older pure blood lines."

"What were the others?"

"Gryffindor supposedly had a very advanced instance of Mage Sight," Narcissa said thoughtfully, "And Helga was a powerful emotive caster. The Malfoy line has begun to show hints of several talents, but nothing steady quite yet."

"What about the Blacks?" Draco asked, eager to hear about his own heritage.

"The Black line," Narcissa paused, sighing, "The Blacks were known for several uncommon talents, but the signature trait of the Blacks was a form of Mage Sense similar to Gryffindor's Mage Sight."

"What can you do with it?"

"Those with a strong gift could feel raw magic," She told him, "including wards, natural lines of ley magic, and conjunctions of such. Many Blacks took on duties as curse breakers, and were unparalleled at it."

"Could I...?"

"It's unlikely, Draco," She told him gently. "That was a trait of the main Black line, you're from a cadet branch. I'm afraid that the wars have all but destroyed that particular gift."

For the first time in a long time, Narcissa could see her son really thinking about things instead of parroting what her husband had told him. It wasn't that she disagreed with her husband's position, but she knew that blind faith often led to a dead end and was pleased that Draco was considering the ideas for himself.

"There is one thing to remember, Draco." She said after a moment.

"Yes, mother?"

"The fox is a wild blood, as I said... but never forget, so is the wolf." Narcissa told her son, "And a wise hound will think twice before stalking a wolf."

* * *

Wednesday Addams paused outside the door to Xander's room, and eyebrow going up as she heard conversation from within. She knocked after a moment and waited until she heard Xander's voice inviting her in.

Inside the room she was only mildly surprised to see Xander leaning back on his bed, chatting with a headless ghost.

"Hey, Wednesday," He greeted her with a grin, "This is Anne."

The ghost tilted slightly at the waist, not a bow but a greeting. "Good evening, young Wednesday."

"Your Majesty," Wednesday returned, with a respectful tilt of her head.

"Majesty?" Xander blinked.

"Boleyn, I presume," Wednesday directed at the ghost.

"Indeed."

"She is a former wife of Henry the Eighth, and one time Queen over England." Wednesday said to Xander, slightly disdainful of his lack of awareness.

Xander grinned, shrugging as he caught the tone, "hey, what do I know about England? I'm a Cali boy, remember? And it's not like they bother teaching us anything about real history in Hogwarts."

Wednesday had to concede the point, "True."

"Anyway, we've been having a nice conversation... at least we have since my heart started again," Xander said with a playful scowl.

"Must I apologize once more?" The ghost asked, her eyes rolling as she held her head against her side. "Few are the living who can see me, and even fewer are those who can do so consistently as you two do."

"We aren't normal." Wednesday replied dryly.

"I had divined as much." Anne replied in kind. "Though we did officially repudiate witchcraft, I was aware of the Royal Wizard young one. You are of his sort, I assume?"

"We are."

"Fascinating. I have not seen any like you before, and I have been wandering these halls for many years."

"You likely have," Wednesday corrected, "However were likely ignored. Ghosts are commonplace for those of us who live in the magical world, and this building holds little interest for wizards. So those who did bother to come here, would have no particular interest in yourself."

The ghostly woman winced, "I suppose that makes some sense."

"No, it does not," Wednesday replied evenly, "however it makes as much sense as anything else done by men... wizard or otherwise."

Xander got a sinking sensation when the ghost laughed bitterly at the joke, and the two began to chatter about how oblivious his gender was. That was his queue to escape and he quietly sidled up to the door before bolting down the hallway. No way he was hanging around a ghost of some woman who got her head cut off and Wednesday Addams when they started talking about men.

* * *

He was congratulating himself on the escape as he explored a little when he heard sounds from ahead and decided to investigate. Xander made his way into a large setting room and noticed that Gomez had apparently taken the room over, having setup a large train set. Xander idly walked around it, checking out the impressive layout as he did.

"Ah, Alex my boy, how are your rooms?"

"Inhabited."

"Pardon?" Gomez frowned curiously, teeth clenched on his ever present cigar.

"Wednesday and Anne Boleyn are complaining to each other about men," Xander explained. "Given that one had her head chopped off by order of her husband, and the other is Wednesday, I did the smart thing."

"Ran for your life," Gomez nodded, "Good job, lad."

"What's with the trains?"

"Every man needs a hobby, Alex," Gomez grinned, waving Xander over. "Have a look."

Xander did so, marveling at the detail of the set. It really was a pretty spectacular layout. He peered closer as one of the trains moved past, and tilted his head slightly as he could have SWORN that there was a man looking out at him.

"Uh..." Xander held his hand up questioningly.

"Not the same though," Gomez sighed, setting down the controls. "No explosives clause... it's a travesty."

"Um..." Xander shifted, trying to see if he could spot the train's passenger again.

"Terribly annoying. Frightfully unfair." Gomez went on, pacing around the table. He suddenly stopped and shook his head, "Listen to me, here I am in lovely historic London, in one of the most haunted places in the world, and I'm pouting like Fester and Pugsley over the lack of explosives."

Gomez laughed, "I'm truly a spoiled American, Alex. Can't live without the modern pleasures. Well, time to correct that."

"Uh, right..." Xander said, eyes still following the train.

"I think a little old world entertainment is in order. You game, my boy!?" Gomez bellowed.

Xander blinked, then shrugged, eyes still on the train. "Uh, sure."

"Excellent. En Garde!"

"What?" Xander snapped up, looking around in time to see a sword coming his way. "Ahhh!"

He caught it on reflex, but unfortunately not by the hilt. The blade bit into his palm, blood running freely as Xander fumbled it twice, cutting his fingers as well, then got a grip on the hilt before the weapon hit the ground. "Ow!"

He looked up, eyes betrayed by the injury Gomez had inflicted, just in time to see the attack coming. Gomez vaulted the table, flipping easily over it in a perfect summer sault, and landed just a few scant feet away as he slashed his own blade in a cutting stroke at Xander.

"Ahhh!"

Xander screamed, throwing himself back as the blade ripped his robes open.

"Defend yourself!" Gomez cried, lunging in.

"Gahhh!"

Xander swiped his own blade across, but totally missed the strike, and winced as he felt a slice open up in his leg.

"Come on, lad! You can do better than that!"

"No I really can't!" Xander cried out, dodging to the left and nearly impaling himself on Gomez' next strike.

Luckily Gomez pulled the blow and paused as Xander gasped for breath. "My lord, lad. Didn't anyone teach you the basics?"

"Sword fighting isn't 'basics' anymore!" Xander snarled, glaring at Gomez, "it stopped being basics a hundred years ago!"

"Nonsense!" Gomez declared, shaking his head at the state of education in the world today, "Alright then, let's start with footwork. We have a great deal to cover, and so little time to do it in."


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Wednesday Addams raised an eyebrow when she entered the drawing room and found Xander wincing as he bandaged his hand.

Xander, looking up, noticed her and grunted, "Your dad's nuts."

She considered that for a moment, debating whether it was intended as an insult or a statement of fact, then shrugged. "Fencing?"

"Is that what you call it? I call it 'Stab Xander Time'."

Judging from the cuts and blood Xander was sporting, Wednesday had to admit that his appellation had merit. She sighed, shaking her head slightly.

"What?" Xander defended himself, "I'm twelve! I've never used a sword before!"

"The second is a reason, the first is not." Wednesday replied dryly, idly taking up a blade from the wall and swishing it through the air. "How is your hand?"

"It'll be ok. I've had worse just mucking around with Jess back home," Xander admitted.

"Good." She said, replacing the sword. "Did father show you anything more then how to bleed?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "He started on about footwork, and talked about lessons."

She smiled lightly, "Perfect. Pay attention to him, Alexander. Father is perhaps one of the finest swordsmen alive today."

"I believe it." Xander grumbled as he reached for another bandage.

"Ah! Alexander, I've been looking for you!"

Xander started as Gomez entered the room, "What for? Come to finish me off!?"

Gomez laughed, "Course not, my boy, I'll do that next lesson. No, I wanted to introduce you to Cousin Itt."

Xander stood up, turning around to say hi to this Cousin, and froze dead as he found himself staring at a walking, five foot tall, bundle of hair.

The hair suddenly jabbered something Xander couldn't hope to decipher in a fast machine gun burst of what Xander could only suppose was words of some kind.

"Quite right!" Gomez responded, "Well boy?"

"Well what!?"

"Bring out the pup, lad, you think Itt here has all day?"

Xander blinked, still confused.

Wednesday sighed, "Cousin Itt came to see Fenrir, Alexander. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Xander said slowly, still staring.

Itt chattered again.

"No, no, of course not. You look absolutely spiffy as always," Gomez assured the hair ball.

"Alexander."

The cold tone broke Xander out of his reverie and he shook himself, "What? Oh, yeah... sure."

He whistled once, and there was an almost instant reply as Fenrir bounded into the room while yapping happily. The hairball turned toward the dog and chattered again, causing the pup to skid to a stop and growl as his hackles came up. That didn't seem to perturb the Addams cousin, however, and Xander took a step forward as Fenrir began to circle around.

"It's alright, boy. Not gonna let him, er... it, hurt you." Xander said, causing Fenrir to relax and Itt to go off on another chattering spree.

"Itt, not it." Wednesday growled instantly, in a tone low enough that the other's didn't hear.

"Uh..." Xander blinked, staring at her.

"His name is Itt." She hissed as Itt produced a dog treat from somewhere and tossed it to Fenrir.

"That's what I said?" Xander offered weakly.

She gave him a glare that clearly showed how little she bought into that story, and he buckled.

"Sorry. I'll remember."

Wednesday nodded curtly, and Xander recognized the matter was closed. For now.

Meanwhile Gomez was listening intently to Itt as the furball chattered away.

"You don't say," Gomez said, sounding shocked.

Itt chattered on a little more.

"You don't say." Gomez replied, this time sounding amazed.

Itt nodded, more of a bob Xander noted, and went on again.

"You don't say."

By this point Xander had had enough, he wanted to know what was up with his dog.

"What? What is it?"

"He didn't say." Gomez shrugged.

There was a long moment of silence as Cousin Itt snapped around and seemed to somehow *glare* at Gomez while Wednesday delicately pinched the bridge of her nose as if to stave off a headache.

Gomez, for his part, grinned widely as if he'd just delivered the best punchline ever.

Itt sighed audibly and turned to Wednesday, chattering away.

Wednesday nodded in understanding and looked over to Xander, "Everything is fine with Fenrir."

Xander, distracted from glaring at Gomez, let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god."

"It seems he's made a Familiar Bond with you," She explained, "which has altered his aging to match your own. It's not precisely rare, but not terribly common either."

"So he's going to age as I do?" Xander asked, considering it. That didn't sound too bad at all.

Itt chattered again, then Wednesday nodded.

"Precisely. Cousin Itt says that he should be due for a growth spurt quite soon, as should you." She said, "though he mentions that there could be some unexpected incidents since Fenrir is a magical creature."

"Huh?"

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Dire wolf, if you'll recall."

"That's not a normal breed of wolf?"

The Addams scion just rolled her eyes and sighed.

* * *

Draco Malfoy's mind was reeling as he tried to understand all the things his mother had laid out, knowing even as he did that there was no way his father would agree with even half of them. There was a cold logic to his mother's statements, though, a sort of certainty that he couldn't refute.

One thing that he found disturbing, though, wasn't the differing beliefs of his parents so much as the level of bitterness his mother seemed to hold. He'd never noticed it before, as she had always held herself as the perfect pure blood wife and mother. The way she spoke of the Black line, though, seemed to physically hurt her.

It did hurt him, though he wasn't sure why.

He was a Malfoy. The Malfoy heir even. To the Black line, if the family still existed, Draco was under no illusions of his importance there. If the family were still intact, he would be a moderately important tool and nothing else.

His mother's words still shocked him on that account.

"Muggle-borns have their place, Draco. Make no mistake of that," She had told him hours earlier. "Take yourself for example. As the Malfoy heir, no Matriarch of the Malfoy Line would permit you to be wed to a muggle born..."

Draco had been indignant in his reply, "I should hope not!"

His mother had merely smiled slightly, "A Matriarch of the Black Line, however, would indeed consider a match between you and, perhaps Granger, as a suitable... even desirable, match."

Draco still shuddered to think of his mother's words, even now unable to find any suitable way to respond to them.

She had, of course gone on, "As a member of a Cadet line of the Blacks, that would be your duty. Cadet branches exist to test unknown blood lines, and to filter out unwanted traits. Within a few generations, one of your get would, ideally, be bred back into the main line in the hopes of preserving the best traits of yourself and your wife."

Wife.

Draco shuddered, thanking merlin that he was the Malfoy heir and not some play toy of the Black line. The very IDEA of being married off to some mudblood...

It made him physically ill.

* * *

Narcissa laughed softly to herself, remember the look on her son's face from their earlier discussion.

Draco was many things, she supposed, but flexible was not among them. As a mother, she doubted she should take quite so much pleasure in his discomfort, but the bulge in his eyes at the mention of the muggle-borns name had been too funny. She had used Granger intentionally, of course, knowing from Draco's previous rants that, one way or another, her name would evoke an emotional response.

Narcissa wondered if Draco had quite realized yet how open he left himself when he allowed someone to affect him so deeply. Likely not. She wasn't sure if he harbored some hidden crush on the girl, or more likely just a deep envy of her intelligence. Likely the latter, Narcissa supposed, though the former was far from impossible.

The Malfoy Matriarch sighed as she fastened her cloak and made her way down the alley and into Muggle London.

She easily found her way to the hidden bistro buried deep in one of the city's back streets and walked in.

"Ah, Madam Malfoy." The Maître D' smiled warmly. "Your table is waiting, and Madam Tonks has already arrived."

"Thank you, Charles." Narcissa said, her voice polite but cool.

She walked past the man into the dining area and made her way through to the semi-private table where her sister was sitting.

"Ciss."

"Romy."

The two sisters smiled at one another briefly, then laughed softly.

"Your regular orders, my Ladies?"

"Yes, Charles. Thank you." Andromeda said as Narcissa nodded.

"Very well, it won't be a moment."

"Take your time, we have much to catch up on after all." Narcissa told him, her eye gleaming as she looked back at her sister.

Andromeda nodded in return, "Indeed."


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The holidays progressed quickly, Xander found, and as normally as one could expect when one was hanging around the Addamses. Despite the ban on explosives in the tower, Pugsley and Fester had found a nice little quarry a few miles out of London which served as a nice testing spot for various explosives the duo cooked up.

"What are you two up to today?" Xander asked, swooping down on the two and hopping off his broom.

He had to admit, flying was one of the big bonuses about having magic, but he really wished it wasn't on broomsticks. Comfort charms be damned, the stupid thing rode up his crotch and kept binding up the Wizard's robes in really uncomfortable places.

Unfortunately there simply was no spell to 'superman' the whole process, at least not under his own control. As far as Xander had been able to find, it was patently impossible to levitate or otherwise 'fly' under one's own magic. He could do it to someone else, or they could to him, but something about trying it on himself would case the magic to be annulled by his own core.

"Hey Xander!" Fester grinned, hunched over as he sidestepped from one charge to the next, "You're just in time. We're going to be trying semtex today!"

Xander blinked, looking at the dull white blocks of putty. "Hey, wasn't the semtex you used last Christmas like orange?"

"Yup!" Fester grinned widely.

"Why isn't this stuff that color?"

"Couldn't get a permit to buy any in England." Fester replied.

"So... you what? Brought this from the states?"

"Nope."

Xander sighed, "Where's it from?"

"Black market." Fester grinned, "only the legal stuff is color coded. Military semtex doesn't have the coloring, or the chemical markers to trace back to its source."

Oi. Xander pinched the bridge of his nose.

Fester finished up and turned back, "See how I did that? Always be very careful with the wiring, boys. Last thing you want is a misfire."

"Yes, Uncle Fester." Pugsley replied dutifully.

Xander leaned in slightly, "Triple twist with a cap?"

"Right you are, you remembered!" Fester grinned gleefully.

"Yeah well, blow me up once, shame on you... blow me up twice, shame..."

"On me!" Fester cackled, pulling them back. "Come on, come on."

Xander let himself be dragged away, snagging his broom as they moved back to the safe zone. Safe being by Addams definition, mind you. Hunkered down behind a boulder, Fester produced an old plunger style detonator and grinned.

"Ready?"

"Ready!" Pugsley grinned.

"Are we far enough..."

Apparently, in Addams talk, what Xander started to ask translated directly to 'ready!' because Fester instantly depressed the plunger. The explosive crack made him jump slightly, pressing closer to the boulder, then the shock wave rolled over them and popped Xander's ears.

Fester was yelling and dancing with Pugsley as Xander's hearing came back, and the two looked at him and yelled something.

"What!?"

"Watch out for falling debris!" Fester repeated himself.

Xander blinked, then looked up and yelped. He dove to one side just as a chunk of rock the size of his head slammed down into the boulder he'd been sheltering behind and splintered into shards. Xander rolled to his feet and glared at Fester.

"Safe distance!?"

Fester shrugged, "Very slim chance of being hit."

"Slim. Slim he says," Xander muttered, shaking his head.

"If you boys are quite done," Wednesday's voice rang clearly through the general melee as she swooped in on her own broom, riding side saddle with a level of dignity Xander wished he could approach, "Father says we're going to Diagon today to do some shopping."

"Cool." Xander grinned, "I need to get to Gringotts and check out this cash I'm supposed to have."

"I'm certain the Goblins will be able to answer your questions."

* * *

Diagon at Christmas time was a site, though the more Xander thought about it, the more confused he got.

"Something bothering you, Son?" Gomez asked as they navigated the throngs.

"Well, yes Sir. Christmas is a Christian holiday, so why are witches and wizards so big on it?" Xander asked, looking around.

"Complicated question, my boy." Gomez replied, "Do you want the short answer, or the long one?"

"Uh... short?"

"They're not big on it."

Xander waited, but it became obvious that he wasn't going to get much more than that. "Ok, longer than that."

Gomez smirked, "Part of it goes back to the fact that Wizarding society as we know it today really didn't begin until a little over a thousand years ago, which was well after the entrenchment of Christianity into the society in which most wizards come from."

"Hogwarts is a thousand years old," Xander frowned, "the school is as old as wizards?"

"Well no, there were wizards around long before that, just not connected as a society the way they are today." Gomez told him, "Druids and Shamen, priests and seers, they were all around but mostly they were part of world society in general. So now, for bonus points, what caused the separation of the two societies?"

Xander grimaced, this was NOT covered in history class. "Uh. Witch hunts?"

Gomez glared at him, "Come now, lad, aren't you paying attention in history class?"

"They don't teach that in history." Wednesday spoke up.

"What!? It's the single most important event in wizarding history, and they don't teach it?" Gomez blurted, drawing attention. "What about the classes from Salem?"

"Those are mostly American Wizarding History. I believe that they expect Hogwarts to teach us the rest."

"What do they teach?"

"Goblin rebellions mostly."

Gomez paused, actually shaking slightly as he slowly changed color. Seeing any color in the normally pale man's skin was interesting, but Xander didn't think the puce look was healthy. "The more I learn about this school of yours, Dear, the less I like."

He sighed, shaking his head, "Wands my dear boy. Around eleven hundred years ago, give or take, the first modern wands were developed."

Xander frowned again, then looked over his shoulder back to where he had bought his wand. "But, isn't there a sign about 'fine wands since 40 BC'?"

"Ah yes, the Ollivander's." Gomez rolled his eyes, "Nice folk, but a little dreary. The family began creating Staves in 42 BC, however Staves while based on many of the same principals as wands were much more power intensive."

"I don't understand, Sir."

"Call me, Gomez, lad." Gomez quirked a grin as his cigar twitched in response. "Simply put, only a tiny fraction of people can use wands, we call them wizards today. Only a tiny fraction of THOSE people can use a stave, in fact I think there is only two in England today who could. Your headmaster Dumbledore, and Nicholas Flamel. We call those people, legends."

"Not much of a market for Staves then, huh?"

"Not much, no lad." Gomez grinned, "Actually, as the legend goes, the original Ollivander created only one, as much by accident as anything else, and it found its way into the hands of Merlin. The family knew that they had magical potential, however, and spend generations refining their work. The breakthrough of wands came about with the help of Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin during their younger days, before Hogwarts."

Xander frowned slightly, considering that carefully.

"Now, mark me, lad." Gomez said seriously, "Because for your sort, that is perhaps the most important event in history. Most wizards without a wand? Nothing more than peasants working the land. With a wand? Well, you get what you see here today."

Xander looked around, all the decorations lit up around him, the entire place animated without any hint of technology or electricity, and he rather imagined that it probably had been very much like this ever since Diagon Alley was created.

"Now, back to your original question, most wizards came from normal society and they brought along the various Christian influenced holidays with them, and even as they began to drop Christian beliefs, they kept the link to the holidays."

"Cool." Xander said as he thought about it. "I kinda thought it was something to do with the old druid holidays, like Christians were supposed to have coopted in the first place."

Gomez shot a sharp glance at the young man, then smiled, "Sharp, lad. I like that. But no, modern wizards have mostly lost all touch with Druid and Celtic rituals, the same as the rest of the modern world. Some tell themselves that story, mind you, cause they hold no love for the church and don't like to admit any connection, but it's all bunk. Now, if you want to learn about real druid rituals, I know a few people."

Xander swallowed at the nearly feral grin on the man's face and shook his head, "maybe later, Sir."

"Pity. And how many times must I tell you, call me Gomez!"

Wednesday cleared her throat, and the two looked at her.

"Yes?"

"We're here." She said, nodding up.

The two looked up, spotting the Gringotts sign.

"Ah, yes. Come along then," Gomez said, "Right inside."


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Gringotts was certainly not what Xander had come to expect, though in fairness he really had no idea what a wizarding bank would look like. The little Goblins running around sneering at people didn't really fit any of the images he'd come up with.

Mr. Addams led them up to a teller and glanced at the name plate idly as the Goblin finished scratching out something or other on parchment.

"Yes?"

"Yes, Gilfarb," Gomez said airily, "be a good fellow and see to this document for the young man."

The Goblin, Gilfarb, scowled at Gomez and took the papers from Xander's hand. He glanced through them quickly and scowled again. "This is a draft on a different bank."

"Is that an issue?"

"There are transferal fees."

"Of course." Gomez said dryly, "You are bankers."

"Will the young man be wanting to open a vault?"

Gomez glanced at Xander, who just looked confused. "No. I believe a transfer of, we'll say five hundred galleons will be sufficient."

"Very well."

The Goblin scratched out the paperwork in record time, then handed it and a quill over to Xander. "Sign this."

Xander reached for the paper, but was blocked by Gomez who scanned the paper quickly.

"Now see here, Goblin." The normally jovial man snarled, his face suddenly very much a mirror of the goblin he was facing, "Transaction fees are one thing, but they don't give you the right to fleece the boy!"

"I assure you, that is our standard..."

"Twenty five percent!?" Gomez cut him off, "You'll take two POINT five and be happy with it."

"Or what, Wizard?" Gilfarb challenged.

"Don't insult me, Goblin. I'm no Wizard, I'm an Addams."

Gilfarb paled to an almost pastel orange at that and his mouth shut instantly, his teeth vanishing from sight. After a moment he spoke again, hesitantly, "A... Addams? Which family are you...?"

"I'm the American Patriarch, Gomez Addams. And if you like our accounts as they are, you'll take two point five and not try to cheat a friend of the family." Gomez replied, his tone suddenly dead even.

"Yes Sir. Two point five will do nicely." Gilfarb said, hastily scrawling out a new paper and pushing it across.

Xander slid it to Gomez this time, who nodded, then Xander signed. He received his money directly and the three made their way out of the bank.

"Are Goblins always like that?" Xander asked hesitantly when they were clear.

"Bankers are always like that," Gomez responded, his tone again jovial. "You just need to know how to handle them. Goblins are a little different, though."

"How?"

"Well, lad, you know the expression humans like to bandy around, Respect is earned?" Gomez asked.

Xander just nodded.

"Well, humans don't really believe that. For humans, respect is lost." Gomez said with a grin, "We tend to give people we don't know a certain level of respect until they've earned more, or lost what they started with. Goblins, though, don't work that way. With a Goblin you always start at zero, so mark that boy, if you have to deal with them in the future."

"Oh." Xander said, feeling a little at sea.

He understood the meaning, he supposed, but it was a weird way of looking at things. "That kinda sucks."

"Maybe, but earn a Goblin's respect and they'll never cheat you, they'll never stab you in the back, and they will never betray your trust. Still, never give a goblin any respect he hasn't earned," Gomez finished, "That's a mark of weakness to them. And they'll mark it, and you, for an easy target."

Xander swallowed, but nodded, "Alright. I'll try and remember that."

"Good lad," Gomez grinned, "Now, on to some shopping, shall we?"

* * *

Shopping took the rest of the day, but it whizzed by like lighting until they were back in the tower. Xander once more found himself creeped out, yet occasionally awed by the Addams as they went about the preparations for their yuletide celebrations.

He found himself wondering what the Addamses really celebrated, however. They weren't remotely Christian, that was certain, yet they bedecked themselves in all the trappings of the holiday with vigor and joy. They even went so far as to put a Santa hat on Lurch, or someone did. Xander privately wondered if the big guy had noticed it yet sometimes, but didn't want to be rude by asking.

From Mr. Addams' comments earlier, Xander thought that they might actually be celebrating the winter solstice, but at the same time that didn't seem quite right either.

It was only a few days to Christmas when he finally broke down and asked them.

Gomez had looked at him queerly, surprised by the question, but it was Mortisha who spoke up.

"Why Alexander, we're celebrating family of course."

Xander just stared blankly.

Fester looked at him oddly, then grinned, "You didn't think we were celebrating a religious holiday did you? Please. Christmas isn't about religion. How many folk worship Sandy Claws anyway?"

"Precisely, Fester old chum," Gomez broke with a wide grin, "Jesus of Nazareth wasn't even born in December, lad. Christmas is as much a Christian holiday as Halloween, which is to say... not at all. This is a time for friends and family, Alexander."

Xander didn't really have a response to that, so he just nodded quietly.

Sometime later, Wednesday moved over beside him and spoke softly as she watched the decorations across the room.

"Do you miss your family?"

Xander had to consider it, "A little. But things were always tense around the holidays."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Not for sure," Xander admitted, "But I think it had a lot to do with my family being from magical families, and maybe they were missing their families."

Wednesday just nodded and fell silent.

The two sat together for the rest of the night, just quietly thinking about the past, the present, and the future.

* * *

Christmas day came quickly after that, and like the year before it was one of the more pleasant ones in Xander's memory.

Since neither he nor Wednesday had shown any interest in high performance brooms, their gifts this year had been new school trunks with four compartments each. One bookshelf, two normal trunk sections, and one room sized section Xander found absolutely incredible.

"How do they make it so much bigger inside than out?" He blurted, not for the first time, as he withdrew his head from the room sized compartment.

"Arithmancy." Wednesday replied calmly.

"Huh?" Xander blinked.

"It's all math, Alexander." She said simply with a shrug.

"Oh." Xander pouted, sighing. "I suck at math."

"How do you know, I doubt you've ever tried this."

"They did the tests at school and everything." Xander shrugged, "I'm not, you know 'special' or anything, but I'm not so good with math or spacial whatsit."

Wednesday regarded him stonily for a long moment, "I think you would learn to trust yourself over some test given to you by people you neither know, nor have any reason to believe in."

"Why would they lie?" Xander blinked.

"I did not say they did. However, were it me, I would do my best to prove the matter to myself."

"Yeah, maybe." Xander replied, trying not to feel down.

"Enough of that for today, children." Mortisha came to his rescue. "Let's finish with the presents."

Holidays with the Addamses were creepy, but surprisingly enlightening.

* * *

With Christmas past the rest of the holidays swept by in a blur, leaving the second part of the school year upon them before they really knew it. Xander didn't know about Wednesday, but he had far more mixed feelings concerning the return to school that he normally had.

On the one hand, it was still school.

No matter what else was going on, it was school and school was, by definition, boring.

Still, it was MAGIC school.

Xander had to admit, short of having classes on The Enterprise or something, that was about as cool as you could make school.

But damn it, it was still SCHOOL.

This cycle of thought was playing through his mind the entire time he and Wednesday were waiting for the Express to leave and return them to Hogwarts, the slightly geeky goofball in him railing against the bizarre new love of learning Xander had picked up since being introduced to magic.

He really had no idea where it came from, he had after all spent a good many year making sure that he didn't catch it from Willow.

"Jessie would be so disappointed in me." He murmured softly.

"Excuse me?"

Xander looked sideways at Wednesday, surprised that he had spoken aloud, then grinned. "My pal back home, he'd be horribly disappointed in me for looking forward to school. We were dedicated underachievers together."

She raised an eyebrow, "And were you good at it?"

Xander blinked, "Uh, I suppose so."

"No you weren't."

Xander blinked. "Huh?"

"If you were dedicated to underachieving, and were also good at it, then you were achieving what you set out to do. So you weren't very good at underachieving."

"Uh..." Xander stared for a long moment, then finally blinked. "Brain... hurts."

Wednesday just shrugged as the train lurched on the tracks and they were once more heading for school. "At least that's evidence of having one."

Once more, Xander found himself swearing that the girl beside him was having a good laugh at his expense, even though she was physically doing nothing of the sort.


	27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The school looked majestic as they approached, the fresh snow coating it from tower to cornerstone, with lights dancing off the powdered white. Xander had donned his Slytherin robes, but underneath he was packing all the layers he could muster as he felt like he was freezing his appendages off with each passing moment.

"Stupid snow." He said through chattering teeth, "I'm a Cali boy for crying out loud. This just sucks."

Wednesday rolled her eyes and casually waved her wand at him, casting a warming charm.

"Ahhh..." Xander moaned, "That's so good. How'd you do that?"

"I'll show you later." She said, shaking her head.

"Thanks."

As the two approached the castle they saw Harry and Ronald coming in their direction from inside. Xander nodded coolly to the Gryffindors as they paused.

"I just wanted to give you this." Ron said, shoving his broken wand at Xander.

Xander accepted it with a nod, "thanks. You have a good match with your new one?"

Ron nodded, actually smiling in the company of a 'snake', "Oh yeah. It's fantastic, nothing like the old one."

"Good. Then there'll be no more accidents." Xander said pointedly.

Ron reddened, but nodded, "No more accidents."

The redhead turned away, but Harry paused for a moment then looked back at Xander.

"Thanks, mate. He really needed that wand."

"I don't give damn what he needed, Harry. Hermione is my friend and Ron was a menace with this thing," Xander said, holding up the wobbly wand. "Safest place in the school was wherever he was trying to curse. Worse, he's got a temper and tends to go for his wand first. You and Hermione were going to get hurt sooner or later."

Harry just shrugged, "Ron wouldn't hurt us."

"Right. I'm sure he's a great guy, but I wouldn't want Jesus Christ himself at my side if he had a backfiring gun and an itchy trigger finger." Xander returned dryly. "Friends like that do your enemies job for them."

Harry hesitated, "I'll talk to him."

"That would be my advice, dude. Remember, he's got a new wand so no excuses. He hurts Hermione or Wednesday, and I'm gunning for a lion pelt." Xander promised.

Harry nodded and followed his friend as Wednesday stared at Xander evenly.

"What?"

"I am quite capable of looking after myself."

Xander smirked, "I know it, but sometimes it takes an outsider to make people see things that should be fixed."

The Addams scion stared for a moment longer, then nodded curtly and the two proceeded into the warmer environs of Hogwarts as they prepared for the winter term.

* * *

After getting settled in, his new trunk replacing the old with all his belongings stashed inside it, Xander headed out of the Slytherin dorms and into the school, just getting used to being in the castle again. Unsurprisingly he found himself in the library, and smiled when he spotted Hermione at their normal table with a stack of books practically hiding her from sight.

"Hey Herms," he said, dropping into the seat across from her, "How was the holidays."

She looked at little frazzled as she looked up at him, but she quickly smiled, "Xander! God, it's good to see you. Is Wednesday back too?"

Xander nodded, idly plucking a book from the stacks and checking it out. "Petrifications? Doing some research into the 'incidents'?"

Hermione nodded, sighing, "There are just so many possibilities, but they're so obscure! It's taking forever to rule each one out."

Xander grunted, flipping through the book. "Our professor from Salem seemed to think that it was probably one of the kids of the terrorist twits you guys had here fifteen years ago."

"Ron and Harry thought it was Draco," Hermione whispered, leaning forward slightly.

Xander laughed sharply enough to get hissed at by Madam Pince, he winced but shook his head.

"No way, Draco couldn't keep a secret if his life was on the line." Xander said, still chuckling. "If he'd been doing it the only mystery would be why he hadn't been caught yet."

Hermione giggled slightly, "That's pretty much what we figured out."

Xander eyed her carefully for a moment, then shrugged, deciding that she'd tell him if she wanted to. "Anyway, Wednesday says it's a snake."

Hermione's head shot up, "A snake?"

"Yeah, like a Basalip or something." Xander shrugged.

"A Basilisk." Hermione hissed tightly, eyes wide, "I think that would do it."

"She and the Professor said that there should be deaths, though, if it's a Basilisk." Xander said, "Anyway, don't know anything about them."

"I think I have a book here somewhere... oh drat, where could it be?"

Xander smirked slightly, shaking his head. "Let me know if you need any help."

"What? Oh, right. Sure..."

Xander chuckled softly and pulled out the grimoire and laid it out on the table in front of him, he had come up with a few thoughts for one of his ideas and wanted to do some checking.

* * *

The term started off smoothly, thankfully, with no more accidents. The winter was still making it difficult to cultivate the mandrake required for the restoratives that the victims would need, which was seriously of the bad, but beyond that things slid back into a routine.

Draco was still pouncing around like he owned the castle, and pretty much everyone else was still ignoring him. Xander had happened on him terrorizing the first years a few times, especially those muggle-born and mixed bloods who had the misfortune of being sent to Slytherin, but had managed to deflect him each time with little effort.

For some reason Draco seemed unwilling to get into any debates with Xander, and had apparently also decided that violence wouldn't be useful either. That surprised Xander, to be sure, but he figured he'd take what he was given and be happy for it.

He never noticed the relieved looks on the first years face when he would walk into the common room, or the fact that many of them tended to choose to study wherever he was spending his time. It was something that didn't go unnoticed by everyone, however.

* * *

"Is Harris building a cabal?"

Daphne Greengrass shook her head as she glanced across the room to where Xander Harris was reading the same book he always seemed to have in his hands. She turned her focus back to her friend, Tracy Davis, "No. I don't think so at any rate. Believe it or not, as far as I can tell he honestly doesn't notice."

"But look at them." Tracy said, nodding to the group of first and second years who were arrayed around Harris.

"I know, but honestly, he's a bit thick." Daphne said, delivering her considered opinion. "I don't know what the hat saw in him, but it wasn't ambition. Or if it was, it was buried under so much cunning that he's just a brilliant sneak."

"This IS Slytherin."

"You don't really think that a twelve year old is that good, do you?"

"I suppose not," Tracy conceded, then scowled, "But it a whole lot nicer to consider than that he's bumbling around like an idiot and doing by accident what we're all trying to do on purpose."

Daphne chuckled, "It's possible, I guess, that stunt he pulled at the start of the year was brilliant."

"How did he pull that off anyway?" Tracy demanded, "The only people who know, or claim to know, are Jacobs, Harrow, and Draco... and the first two aren't talking while I don't believe a word Draco says."

Daphne closed her mouth, her eyes moving away.

"You know!" Tracy hissed, leaning in.

"It's actually kind of obvious once you know the answer," Daphne said softly. "They didn't do anything much, just redirected the Twins pranks away from our table."

Tracy stared, blinking. "That's it?"

Daphne nodded.

"But... but, that's so simple!"

"Shhh!" Daphne shut her up. "And yes, it was. Which is why no one figured it out."

Tracy leaned back, eyes falling over to Xander, "So is he some sort of genius, or the living embodiment of Occam's Razor?"

Daphne frowned, "What?"

"It's a philosophy thing," Tracy told her, "basically it says that if you have two answers that are equally likely to be true, you're best choosing the simpler of the two until more evidence is available."

"Well Xander certainly is the simpler of the two," Daphne snarked as she nodded from Xander over to where Draco was holding court at the far end of the room.

The room quieted for a moment as the boys looked nervously over at the two witches as they broke down in uncontrollable giggles.

* * *

Valentine's Day arrived in the castle, much to the delight and disgust of the school. Delight and disgust because Professor Lockhart took it upon himself to cheer things up and turned the entire place into a nightmare from the most twisted minds at Hallmark. Lurid pink was the color of the day, with actual dwarfs running around singing poems and generally embarrassing the hell out of half the school while the other half laughed.

Xander watched in mild amusement as Harry was the recipient of a particularly horrid piece of writing, then felt something of a chill as one of the Dwarfs cleared his throat from the Ravenclaw table and attracted the attentions of many in the hall.

It had stopped right in front of Wednesday, and was preparing to read from the paper in its hands when she interrupted it.

"Life is short enough," She said coldly, "Must you really hasten the approach of the spectral hand of death?"

The cupid costumed dwarf swallowed hard and shook his head, ripping up the paper in his hand. He turned to Lockhart, "I quit!"

Xander smirked, then exchanged a curious glance with Wednesday. She arced and eyebrow at him, which he interpreted to mean 'did you send that?'. He shook his head slightly, twisting his head slightly and exposing his neck.

She nodded, receiving his message loud and clear.

'Of course not. Do I look like I want my throat slit?'


	28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

With the horror of Valentine's day past them, and classes settling down to the normal routine, Xander finally found time to do some work with Ron's old wand. The Ash wand was held together by the spello tape still, and he had to carefully unstick that and peel it slowly off to reveal the damage. The wood had been totally shattered, but the unicorn tail hair was still intact and held the two ends together.

Xander supposed that was what allowed the wand to still work, though it obviously became unreliable after the break. Probably because proper wand movements would be next to impossible with the tip of the wand wobbling slightly, though it was possible that the magic simply didn't jump across the break in the wood properly.

"What ARE you doing, Harris?"

Xander glanced up as Draco approached, "Just pulling apart an old wand."

"That's Weasley's isn't it?" Draco sneered, as he usually did. "I noticed he had a new one. Why'd he give you that?"

"I asked." Xander shrugged, "Wanted to see what these things were like on the inside."

"Why ever would you want that?"

"Funny," Xander drawled in an imitation of Draco's tone, "You sounded exactly like Ronald there for a moment."

Draco reddened, his hand wrapping around his wand, "Are you calling me a Weasley!?"

Xander considered it, not reaching for his own wand, "Well, I don't know how far the inbreeding actually goes..."

The Malfoy scion shook, wand out in his hand now, "How DARE you?"

"Draco," Xander sighed, "Think about it. Why would anyone want to see how wands are made?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "That's what I asked!"

"And I'm asking you to answer it."

Draco cooled down a little, then shrugged, "I suppose if you wanted to be a wand maker it would be important."

"One good answer." Xander agreed, "Any others?"

Draco just shrugged.

"Did you know that the current wands haven't really changed in over eleven hundred years?" Xander asked, "Before that it was mostly Staves, and only a handful of wizards could use them."

"Everyone knows that, Harris."

"I didn't," Xander shrugged, "And I suspect that most muggle borns don't know it either."

"Why would I care what they know?"

"You wouldn't, but the point is that not everyone knows it." Xander said, turning his focus back to the wand. "This little stick changed the world, it's probably the single most important item in the entire wizarding world, and no one cares how it works?"

"Why should we?" Draco asked with that permanent sneer he maintained, "Tools are there to be used."

Xander shrugged again, "No reason, I guess."

Draco smirked at him, confident at having won the argument, and pranced off with his nose in the air. Xander watched him go for a moment before returning his attention to the wand. He noted that the unicorn hair had been pulled just slightly out of the wood, which meant that the two pieces could no longer be fit together properly without bending the hair.

Another point of failure, probably.

There were no books on basic wand making in the library, Xander had discovered, so he knew too well that most of this was just guess work at best. As near as he could tell, the secrets of wandmaking were controlled by certain pureblood families.

The Ollivander's in Britain, The Marceau family in France, and the Gregorovitch family in Eastern Europe had a rather tight grip on the construction of those little pieces of irreplaceable wood and magic. Wands in the states were mostly imported, Xander had learned after a discussion with Professor Hardy, though there were some wand crafters who had setup shop in various places in the American Wizarding World.

Crafters were different than the Three Families of Wands, according to Hardy. They custom designed wands for their users, which roughly approximated the same quality as a matched Ollivander wand, however it took several weeks to craft each wand, where as Ollivander and the others of the Three Families could make a wand with their technique in as little as an hour.

Of course there was no guarantee that said wand would match with a given wizard, but the sheer number of wands they could make, combined with the huge backlog each of the Three Families had from generations of wand makers, nearly guaranteed a good match for any wizard or witch who came in the door.

For that reason, the cheaper yet equally effective wands from the Three Families basically owned the market in Europe, most of Africa, and much of Asia. Only in the Americas, Australia, and a few oddball places did crafters survive due to import tariffs and other local restrictions. If he had bought his wand in the States, Xander found out, he would have paid closer to a hundred galleons for it and would have had to wait several weeks at a minimum if he commissioned it from a crafter.

Xander couldn't put his finger on it, but there were whole aspects of the wizarding world that just seemed off somehow, and this was one of them.

He kept trying to compare them to stuff in his comic books, but really couldn't get the reality to match up with the fantasy. It kinda disappointed him, really, he had been seeing the magical world as an extension of his comic book fantasies, but something was just... wrong.

He sighed, scratching down some notes in the Coven Grimoire and settled back into the chair to think.

"Interesting pen."

He opened his eyes and flicked over to see Daphne sitting across from him.

"Thanks, it was a gift."

"I don't believe I've seen one like it before, is it a muggle pen?"

He nodded, "A fountain pen, invented a long time ago. Marks just like a quill, but you don't need an ink pot, it holds the ink inside."

Daphne nodded, leaning forward to get a closer look. "And you use it for class?"

Xander smirked, "Not Professor Snape's, but I do use it for his homework. Have all year, he's never noticed a difference."

She smiled slightly, tipping her head slightly as she leaned back. "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with Draco."

"Translation," Xander said with a grin, "my Slytherin side made me listen in, along with everyone else in the common room."

Daphne smirked tightly, glancing around as several other students suddenly found very interesting things in their own books to focus on. "Precisely."

"So what of it?"

"I'm just curious, really," She admitted, "What do you hope to learn?"

Xander shrugged, "Don't know. Just seems wrong, somehow, to wave these around and not have some idea how they work. You know, in my school back home, I took 'muggle' classes, including some science courses. They always tried to explain HOW something works, even if it's just a really simple explanation that leaves out the details. I guess I'm used to that."

She nodded slowly, eyes hooded slightly as she considered his words.

Xander knew she was smart enough to have noted that he admitted to taking normal classes, but he was banking on her being smart enough to read more into what he'd said than he meant. He'd learned that Slytherins tended to do that, and if she did than he expected she would draw conclusions that would lead her away from the truth of his family situation. The last thing he needed was for the house to figure out that his parents were squibs, as that was really only slightly better than their being muggles.

"I guess that makes sense." She said after a moment, "Is schooling that different in the States?"

Xander considered for a moment, thinking about the classes he had to take now. "Well, I'm taking classes in physics and chemistry even now, as well as biology."

"You are? Wait... what are those?"

Xander raised an eyebrow, he'd known that the wizard world didn't put much stock in 'muggle' sciences, and with some good cause really. Magic really did violate many of the rules of science so utterly that it made the courses seem stupid. Hardy had been adamant there, though, that the 'laws' in the books were in fact accurate despite the appearances.

Magic didn't follow Newton's laws of motion, for example, or really any of the common 'laws' of the world. Apparently magic fell into a category Hardy called 'High Energy Physics' for the most part, where the laws of nature were markedly different. Xander hadn't understood a word of it, though, and Hardy had told him that he wasn't expected to unless he went to a Doctorate program and beyond in certain specialties.

At any rate, what surprised him here was that Daphne didn't even know the words. She wasn't a stupid girl, and you'd think that one some level or another she'd have at least heard the basics about them. He had, after all, probably before he could say the words. They were the sort of thing you were bombarded with in what Xander was rapidly thinking of as 'the real world'. Biology? Spiderman, Frankenstein, almost every monster flick he'd ever watched were based on some screwed up version of biology. Chemistry was the basis for all kinds of stuff in horror movies and comics, from the acid blood in Aliens... which, now that he thought about it, was also a weird kind of biology... to the Joker's maniac persona in Batman. Physics, well that was the basis of every sci-fi flick he'd ever watched, of course.

And she'd never heard of any of them?

"Uh, well, Chemistry is sort of a 'muggle' version of potions," Xander answered, "it's the basis for, well a LOT of stuff they make. Physics is how the world works, you know... if I push you I have to brace myself or I'll also push myself *away* from you? Stuff like that. And, well, biology is just how livings things work. Sort of like Care of Magical Creatures, I guess."

Daphne frowned, but nodded. "Those muggles, they can be kinda cute with their playing around, can't they?"

Xander blinked, "Uh... I guess..."

* * *

The Gryffindor/Hufflepuff game was on them shortly after that, and Xander joined most of the school outside to watch it. He wasn't really into sports, but he had to admit that as far as sports went, Quidditch was probably one of the more fun to watch.

As they were getting ready to get the game underway, however, they all saw professor McGonagall stride out onto the field with a megaphone and the crowd hushed.

"Quidditch is canceled!" She called out, then ignored the protests as she told them to make their way back to their dorms.

Xander watched as he got up and started to move with the group, eyes on the professor as he spotted Harry chasing after her. On a hunch he broke from the pack and followed at a distance. Harry and Ron went with their head of house to the infirmary, and Xander moved in quietly just close enough to see through the door.

Inside he could hear their gasps of shock as he spotted Hermione on the bed, arms sticking up in an awkward position, her eyes open and unmoving.

"She's been petrified, I'm afraid." McGonagall said from inside the room.

Xander's knuckles turned white as his face rapidly paled to match, and he fell back from his position and retreated towards the Slytherin common room.


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Professor Hardy had dealt with students for some thirty years and had seen most everything there was to see in that regard. So, when Alexander Harris kicked open the door to his classroom at their regular time and strode in looking like he wanted to murder someone, Hardy merely raised an eyebrow.

"Problems?"

Alexander simply growled, slamming his books down as he paced back and forth furiously.

"Calm down."

The ice cold tone from Hardy's second student at Hogwarts brought both of them up short, and even Alexander seemed to freeze for a moment as his fury seemed to cool.

"Damn it, Wednesday!" The angry flared back up again, "She's our friend!"

"And anger, undirected, will do neither her, nor you and I, any good." Wednesday countered calmly.

Xander slumped, "She's our friend."

Hardy sighed, shaking his head, "You knew the last girl to be petrified, then?"

They both nodded, and Xander turned to him.

"Sir, did you hear back about those calls you were making?"

Hardy winced, but nodded, "Yes. The CMDC keeps certain potions on ice in Atlanta, including petrification cures, but there's a problem."

"What problem!?"

"The local ministry has a ban on imported medicinal potions," Hardy sighed, "or, rather, they insist on a two month quarantine to 'assure against tainted imports'."

"You called more than two months ago," Xander countered, "Why isn't it through?"

"Because this type of potion doesn't keep that long without some rather extreme refrigeration," Hardy explained.

"Bureaucrats." Wednesday said flatly.

"Quite." Hardy sighed. "In point of fact, I have two doses available. They were shipped to the embassy in a diplomatic pouch, one for each of you."

"Give mine to Hermione." Xander said instantly.

"I wish it were that easy, son." Hardy said wearily. "For either of you, I could force the situation. You're American citizens, and are both technically my wards while you're here in Britain. I can't do anything for a citizen of the UK without the consent of their guardians, and I'm not likely to be even told who Miss Granger's parents are, let alone where they live."

Xander let out another curse, slamming his hand into the desk. "Just GREAT."

"Patience," Wednesday suggested, "She will be fine, the petrification causes no lasting effects."

"That's true," Hardy interjected. "Given the current climate around here, she's probably safer than most."

Xander settled down, nodding.

He knew that was true, of course. The Ministry had sent in Aurors to arrest Hagrid for the crimes, and Dumbledore had been given the boot by the governing board of the school in the day following the attack on Hermione. Draco was prancing around like a peacock in full strut, bragging about how his father had given Dumbledore the boot.

For now a peace was holding, since McGonagall had received the temporary placement as Headmistress, but Xander was privy to a lot of background information and he knew that Draco's Dad seemed intent on putting a pureblood sympathizer into the position. If THAT happened, Xander was checking out and going home. He'd be sending notes to Hermione's parents advising them to get her out of the country at the same time, cause there was no way the school would be fit to live in if someone like Professor Snape took over the position.

Xander didn't have anything personal against the professor, but the way he favored the purebloods was painfully obvious, and if people like Draco thought they didn't have to worry about the rules anymore? Anarchy, at best. Tyranny at worst.

He took a breath, "Can you get that potion here, Sir?"

"It'll only keep outside our cold storage for five days, Alexander." Hardy said quietly. "We have to store it in freezers normally intended for cryogenic containment of samples."

"Five days." Xander sighed, "And when did they expect to be able to mix their own here?"

"By the end of the month."

Xander shook his head, "I hate this."

"Not much to like, son." Hardy shook his head, "Now, not to be an ogre, but we do have some work to do. Have you both done your reading?"

* * *

Xander was still in a sullen mood after the class as he and Wednesday walked back toward the library.

"So when do we start?"

Xander looked sharply at her. "Start what?"

"Hunting down the Creature."

Xander paused, leaning on a wall for a moment. "You still think it's a Basilisk, then?"

"I know it."

"And the lack of deaths?"

Wednesday shrugged, "The mind of a Basilisk is easy to understand, the mind of a human who orders one about? That can be more complicated."

"Yeah," Xander said slowly, his jaw tightening. "Someone's pulling its strings, aren't they? Someone ordered it to attack Hermione."

She nodded.

"How big are these things anyway?"

"That would depend on age," Wednesday shrugged, "Like many magical creatures, Basilisks are quite long lived, and they do not stop growing."

"If the legends are true, it's been here, what? A thousand years?"

"Then it would be quite large."

"Hard to hide."

Wednesday shrugged, "Old castles have a tradition of secret passage ways."

Xander nodded, "Alright. So we just have to find some secret tunnels, track down a big killer snake, kill it... then find the person ordering it around and, what? Catch them?... Kill them?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow at the hesitancy in Xander's last question, "First we determine who they are, then we decide on how to proceed."

Xander nodded, "How do we find the passages?"

"That," Wednesday admitted, "Will be the difficult part."

* * *

The duo marked off their usual table in the library and began to do research as best they could, focusing on the location of the victims, as well as the few details they could locate on the last time this had happened.

"I wish we could speak with Hagrid," Wednesday said while reading.

"No way he did any of that," Xander shrugged, remembering how the big man had treated the first years. "Hagrid's a soft touch."

"True, though it is remotely possible he did something by accident." Wednesday countered.

Xander had to concede that point, but just shook his head. "Doesn't matter, he's not here. One fatality the last time, Myrtle Rountree."

Wednesday frowned, looking up, "Myrtle?"

Xander nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"There's a ghost, she haunts the girls' bathrooms."

"Yeah?"

"They call her Moaning Myrtle."

"Sounds like a lead." Xander said, pushing the books away.

She nodded and the two packed up their books and quietly left the library. As they walked, Wednesday continued to consider the situation.

"To order the basilisk, we must be looking for a Parselmouth." She said out of the blue.

"A whatsit?"

"Parselmouth, someone who speaks to snakes. A speaker." She said, "it's a rare talent that follows certain bloodlines."

"You know which ones?" Xander asked, drawing out his Coven book.

"No. Why?"

"Just checking." Xander scribbled down a couple notes, and closed the book. "Ok, so other than a parcel package, what else can we guess about this guy?"

"Most likely pureblood, of course, though if he or she is smart they may be hiding their affiliations."

"Right. Sneaky dude pretending to be a good guy, check." Xander replied.

Wednesday rolled her eyes, nodding at a door ahead of them, "We're here."

The two cautiously made their way into the bathroom, and Xander frowned. "Hey, this is where we near got killed by that troll last year."

Wednesday sniffed, causing Xander to hide a grin. The youngest of the Addamses was still more than slightly ticked at having missed a shot at the Mold in his Shorts dude who'd involved the troll.

She didn't say anything about it though as she looked around, "Myrtle?"

They waited, but there was no response.

"Hey Myrt!" Xander called.

There was a bubbling as one of the toilets began to overflow, and then in an explosion of water a ghost appeared and charged up in Xander's face.

"Oh sure!" She called, "Don't bother to learn poor moaning myrtle's real name, why should she care if you call her funny names, she's just a ghost..."

"Chill, Spooks." Xander cut her off, grinning. "I call everyone by funny names."

The ghost paused, head cocking, "Really?"

"Well, almost everyone." Xander admitted, then pointed at Wednesday. "She scares me."

Myrtle turned to look at the dark Ravenclaw, let out a screech that nearly sent Xander scrambling for cover, and dove back into the toilet.

Xander worked his fingers around in his ears, then glared at Wednesday, "What the hell was that?"

"Addams are often trained in necromancy." She replied, "It's a natural gift."

"Oi." Xander rolled his eyes, "Some gift. You scared our lead down the toilet."

He walked over to the toilet and shook his head, "I hope you got a plunger, cause I ain't going after her."


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After leaving the girl's washroom, their abject failure in coaxing Myrtle back out of her hidey hole, the duo spent the next couple days trying to brainstorm another lead when matters were forced on them. The rumors of the mysterious 'chamber' abounded, and the fact that 'she' would rest in the chamber forever.

The identity of the girl in question was the subject of rumors, but in short order it became obvious that there was only one missing student.

"Ginny Weasley."

Xander blinked when Wednesday delivered that information, "You sure?"

She raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

"Right. Of course you are." Xander rolled his eyes. "Ok, new plan. Let's move."

"Where?"

"Where else, we find Harry and follow him."

"I fail to see how that will help."

Xander half smiled, "You ever hear the expression 'better lucky than good'?"

"Of course."

"Harry's lucky." Xander said, then shrugged, "Both kinds of luck, in spades, but he's lucky. Ron's little sister is in the Chamber, right?"

"I see your point."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Xander smirked, nodding to the door of the library.

* * *

Finding Harry and Ron wasn't hard, figuring out what the hell they were up to on the other hand was another matter.

"What are they doing?" Xander hissed from where he and Wednesday were shadowing the duo.

"I believe that they're going for help," Wednesday replied, disgust in her voice.

"From *Lockhart*!?" Xander returned, equally disturbed.

The dark girl didn't answer as the two reappeared from the DADA professor's office, holding wands on the so called professor.

"The very fact that two second years got the drop on him should clue them in to the fact that he's not going to be much use." Wednesday said dryly.

"Better lucky than good," Xander replied in a soft hiss before the twosome broke cover to follow the group.

They were led through the halls until they wound up right back at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, much to Xander's disgust. Xander and Wednesday crept forward in time to hear an argument going on inside.

"So how do we get in?" Ron grumbled, kicking at a fixture.

"I don't know," Harry replied, equally perturbed, but calmer about it. "But it has to be here somewhere. Myrtle said..."

"I know what the moaning ghost said, Harry!"

Xander shot Wednesday a dark look as he whispered, "Oh look, some people don't scare the ectoplasm out of the only witness around. Imagine that."

Wednesday scowled at him and calmly laid a hand across his thigh, then squeezed. Xander's eyes bugged out as he crumpled to the ground, teeth clenched in pain. When she let go he took a few breaths, then nodded, "Good point, it's probably time to let go of that and move on. Never dwell in the past, that's what I always say..."

She rolled her eyes slightly and focused back on the argument in the bathroom.

"It's impossible, I tell you," Lockhart was saying, much calmer now than he had been earlier, "Only the Heir of Slytherin can open the Chamber, accept it and move on."

"Move on!?" Ron snarled, jabbing his wand at the professor, "That's my SISTER you're talking about!"

"Yes, yes, tragic I admit, but there's nothing to do." Lockhart said, obviously faking a sad tone. "However it would require at least a bloodline trait of the Slytherin family to gain access."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Well obviously I know how to do my research," Lockhart sniffed, "My books didn't write themselves, you know."

"Wouldn't surprise me if they did, you git." Ron growled.

"What traits did the Slytherin line have?" Harry asked, his tone a little desperate sounding.

"Well, several really. The line is one of the oldest pureblood lines in existence, you know." Lockhart said, rolling his eyes. "Most famous is Parselmouth, of course, then..."

"Wait, what's Parselmouth?"

"Talking to snakes," Ron answered, "Only dark wizards do that."

There was a long silence from inside the room.

"Uh... but I can do that, I think." Harry's voice said, sounding very small.

"What!?" Ron and Lockhart yelped together.

"I mean, I did it once I think." Harry said, "When I was younger."

"But... but... that's a *dark* wizard ability." Ron hissed.

"Look, do you want to save your sister or not!?"

They didn't hear another else out of Ron, but instead heard movement followed by a soft hiss and then a harsh grating sound.

"Blimey." Ron said softly. "You found it, Harry!"

"Yes well," Lockhart spoke up, "Glad I could help, I'll just be going now and..."

"Move it!" Ron growled, "You go first."

Wednesday and Xander waited until they heard three whooping yells, then ducked inside. They found a gaping hole and tunnel where the fixtures had been.

"My, my," Wednesday said, her voice idly interested. "Harry Potter is a Parselmouth. Fascinating."

"We going down there?" Xander asked, looking down the tunnel, "Cause I'm not really fond of sewers, you know."

"Honestly. There are no sewers in Hogwarts, especially not in an area of the castle this old." Wednesday replied, "When the castle was built sewage was handled entirely externally."

"Huh?"

"Think outhouses."

"Oh." Xander nodded, then grimaced, "Still looks like a sewer."

Wednesday sighed, then jumped. As she spun silently out of sight Xander grimaced again and followed suit.

* * *

At the bottom they slid to a stop and got to their feet in a hurry as they heard shouting just ahead. The two drew their wands and quickly jogged down the path to find Lockhart threatening the two boys with a wand, obviously about to cast a spell as he sneered at them.

Xander glanced at Wednesday, who looked at him, and they both nodded together and aimed their wands.

"Difindo Ossi!"

The two bone splitter curses slashed out, one striking the professor's right arm, the other his left. Xander winced slightly as Lockhart's arms were suddenly jerked straight out in either direction and snapped with a sharp tug. He howled in pain as he collapsed, his wand clattering across the floor.

"Buh... buh... bloody hell!" Ron swore, face sweating slightly.

"This yours?" Xander asked, hefting the fallen wand.

"Yeah," Ron nodded.

Xander tossed it back to him, then looked down at Lockhart, who was moaning in pain as he tried to cradle his broken arms, which only resulted in twisting them more than they were already. "What were you two thinking, bringing this waste of good O2 along?"

"Waste of what?" Ron blurted.

"Nevermind," Xander shook his head. "So, this is the Chamber, huh?"

Harry nodded uncertainly, "We think so. See the snakeskin?"

Xander looked over and paled as he saw the size of the skin in question, "That's one big snake, Wednesday."

"Indeed. It would appear that the legends are true. A Basilisk would have to be almost a thousand years old to be that size."

"Right." Xander looked around, eyeing the walls. "New plan. We grab Ron's little sister, run like hell, and then maybe collapse this tunnel. It doesn't look too stable, I think we could do it."

"But..." Ron started to object.

"Look, I'm not too keen on killing a thousand year old snake, ok?" Xander cut him off. "Anything that lives that long, it's meaner than me."

"I'm not so sure about that," Harry said, looking at Lockhart's whimpering form.

"Oh please." Wednesday rolled her eyes.

"We going to do this, then?"

Ron and Harry exchanged glances, then nodded.

"Alright then. Onward and, well... downward." Xander said with false enthusiasm.


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"What did you hit him with anyway?" Ron asked as they walked away from the moaning Professor.

"Bone splitter curse," Xander shrugged, "Wednesday showed it to me. It's a tournament legal version of the Fragier Ossi curse, cause it's non-lethal."

"What if you hit him in the head?" Harry asked, grimacing slightly.

"Skull fracture," Wednesday answered, "Unless they hit the ground badly, that's all."

"That's bloody enough if you ask me." Ron replied.

"And the other one?" Harry asked, curious.

"Bone fragmentation curse," Xander answered, "You don't want to know what that does when you hit someone in the head."

Harry and Ron turned a little green, but nodded as the group came to a stop at a set of doors.

"This the place?" Xander asked, looking up.

Wednesday rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

"I guess so." Harry shrugged, "More snake speak, you think?"

"Likely," Wednesday said, eyeing the ornate craftsmanship.

Harry hissed at the door's snake carving, and for a moment nothing happened, and then a loud clunk sounded and the doors slowly opened on their hinges. The four kids looked at each other nervously, then pushed forward past the doors and into the Chamber.

"Oh bloody hell." Ron whispered.

"Yeah, I can rock with that." Xander replied.

"Impressive." Wednesday said softly, eyeing the large room interestedly.

"Guys! It's Ginny!" Harry said, surging forward. The three others chased after him, spotting the girl's form on the ground, and the teenage form standing over her.

They led with their wands, eyeing the unknown person warily as they approached.

"Back off! Get away from my sister!"

The teen looked at them calmly, eyes alighting on Harry and automatically rising to his scar.

"The Great Harry Potter," The boy smiled, "I've heard so much about you from dear Ginevra here."

"You're... Tom? Tom Riddle?"

The boy nodded.

"You know this dude?" Xander asked, wand dropping slightly.

"He was Slytherin head boy back when Hagrid was in school."

Xander's wand jumped back up, "He don't look that old."

"Ginny! Ginny! Wake up!" Ron said, nudging his sister gently as he knelt by her side.

"She won't wake."

"What did you do to her!?" Ron snarled.

"She's not...?" Harry swallowed.

Riddle ignored Ron, eyes only on Harry, "Dead? No. Not yet."

"What are you, dude? A ghost?" Xander asked, eyes flickering over to Wednesday.

"A memory." Riddle responded softly, eyes moving over to take in the other two present. "And you are?"

"Harris." Xander said curtly.

"I know a Harris," Riddle said, losing interest. "Useless near squib."

Xander shrugged, "Oh joy. Blood supremacist I assume?"

"Only as it suits me." Riddle said in response. "I believe in power, boy."

"What did you do to Ginny!?" Ron cut in, wand stabbing forward as he rose to his feet.

"Forget him, Ron." Xander advised. "Grab your sister, we're out of here. Madam Pomfrey can look after her."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Riddle said.

"Look, Tom, we have to get out of here!" Harry said urgently, "The Basilisk..."

"Won't come until it's called for." Tom said calmly.

"It was you." Wednesday cut in. "You're the so called 'Heir'."

"Why yes, I am." Tom said with a cool smile. "And you are?"

"Wednesday." She told him, "Wednesday Addams."

Riddle's eyes widened slightly, "Are you really? My, my, there hasn't been an Addams at Hogwarts in... well, ever, I think. As a member of a renowned dark family, you must appreciate the genius of what I've done."

"A memory couldn't control the Basilisk," Wednesday said idly, walking around the fallen girl. She paused and looked up sharply, "Possession?"

"It is nine tenths of the law, or so they say."

Wednesday looked down at the redhead, "She opened the chamber and controlled the basilisk."

"Bravo."

Ron reddened, "No way! My sister would never have...!"

"Silence, fool." Tom snapped before focusing back on Harry and Wednesday. "It was easy really, if a bit dull. She's such a silly little girl..."

He assumed a mocking pose, raising his voice slightly to imitate his victim, "Oh dear Tom, how will I ever let Harry know how I feel? What if he doesn't feel the same about me? He *so* cute, and he's the boy who lived..."

Tom rolled his eyes, "Frankly, I was shocked. I didn't believe it was possible to be nauseous without a body."

Wednesday smiled slightly, "She fought you."

The memory of Riddle glared suddenly, "She failed pitifully!"

"No one died." Wednesday said, her voice suddenly clear as if a light had lit in her mind. "The Basilisk is insane, I've heard it ranting. It's a killer, and yet no one died. She fought you, right to the end."

"And she FAILED." Tom growled, "Soon she will be dead, and I'll be back... and the Wizarding world will tremble at my feet."

"You'll be stopped!" Harry yelled.

"By who? YOU!? Don't make me laugh, boy."

"Dumbledore will stop you!" Harry said.

"That old fool was chased from the castle by a mere MEMORY of me!" Riddle snarled back. "He couldn't stop me before, and he won't be able to now."

"Liar!"

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Harry?" Tom sneered, "I don't care about Dumbledore. This is all about you."

Harry fell back as the others looked confused, "M... me? What do I have to do with it?"

"Everything." Tom said, stepping toward Harry. "As soon as she wrote about you, I knew that I had to arrange this little meeting. I had to know, you see. How did a little BRAT like you take down the most powerful Dark Lord of all time?"

Harry swallowed, "What do you care? Voldemort was after your time!"

Tom sneered again, "Voldemort is my Past, Present, and Future you idiot boy."

He drew out Ginny's wand and flicked it through the air, writing out his name.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Then, with a series of wand gestures, he rearranged the letters.

I Am Lord Voldemort.

The group read the changes in stunned silence.

For a second.

"So this is the dude with Mold in his Shorts?"

Ron gaped at Xander in total shock as Wednesday smirked just slightly and Harry stifled a snicker.

Tom, however, spun on him, "You DARE!?"

"Hey look, you're the dumb dork who picked a name that easy to make fun of, man." Xander told him. "You should have stuck with Tom. Hard to make fun of Tom. Of course the Great Dark Lord Tom doesn't have much of a ring to it, so I guess I understand. Still, man, you should have picked something scarier."

"Indeed." Wednesday said simply, "Flight from Death is hardly fear inspiring."

"It means flight OF DEATH!"

"No." Wednesday shook her head, "That would be Vol *du* Mort. Vol de Mort is flight FROM death."

"ENOUGH!" The memory of Tom Riddle screamed, stamping its feet with depressingly little effect since he was lacking much in the way of a body.

"I think we hit a nerve." Xander mock whispered.

"I believe you're right." Wednesday replied.

"Silence!" Tom snarled, then turned on Harry. "Now speak! Tell me, boy, how did you survive!? Twice we have met, in your past and my future, and twice I have failed to kill you. What makes you special!? How is it that you, of all people, can survive the greatest sorcerer ever?"

"*Cough*Arrogant*Cough*" Xander said into his hand.

Tom ignored him, focusing on Harry. "Speak boy. SPEAK!"

Harry straightened his back, glaring right back at the memory of his parent's killers. "You're not, you know."

"What?"

"You're not the greatest. Albus Dumbledore is! Everyone says so. You were afraid of him when you were alive, and your shade still cowers in some dark hole today, afraid of Dumbledore!" Harry yelled, "You're a coward. You always were, and you always will be!"

Riddle screamed in frustration, "Albus Dumbledore is NOTHING compared to me! I am the most powerful sorcerer of all TIME!"

"And modest." Xander said, looking at Wednesday, "So modest too. Don't you think?"

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "For a certain meaning of the word. He's certainly a modest sorcerer, at least."

Tom glared at her for a moment before her words penetrated, then he let out another scream and spun around.

"Speak to me oh Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts FOUR!"

The sound of stone grinding on stone began to echo through the chamber.


	32. Chapter 32

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Get between the girl and the snake," Wednesday instantly ordered, her wand leaping up, "And close your eyes unless I say otherwise!"

"Our eyes!? What about you!?" Ron blurted.

"My family doesn't petrify easily."

"Amen to that," Xander muttered, eyes slamming shut. "I've seen stuff at their place that would scare the venom out of this thing, trust her."

"Trust her?" Ron moaned, "You're telling me that our lives are depending on someone who can scare a bloody Basilisk, and 'trust her' is the best you come up with!?"

"Shut up, Ron!" Harry snapped, "Do what she says, that thing doesn't sound happy."

"It's insane." Wednesday's voice spoke up again, "As you would be if you were locked for your entire life in a hole like this, subsisting on vermin and magic. Alexander, straight ahead of you, slightly up. Bone splitter."

"Difindo Ossi!" Xander snapped, his wand dancing out. "Did I hit it?"

"No, but you made it turn around."

"I'll take the consolation prize."

"Where is it!? Where is it!?"

"SHUT UP RON!" Xander and Harry snarled together.

Contrary to her appearance, Wednesday Addams was worried. It was true that she wasn't susceptible to petrification, and even the Basilisk's killing stare would have diminished effect on her, but neither did she have access to anything that would seriously injure the great snake. She watched it as it moved around them, staying mostly to the shadows, but noted that the thing was larger than she'd thought. It was certainly as old as the legends said, and judging from its insane rambling had been locked down here almost the entire time.

For a moment she wished that she were a Parselmouth, rather than just had the gift of tongues all Addams had, but set that thought aside. The snake was quite simply mad. There would be no bargaining with it.

"You're only prolonging the inevitable." Tom Riddle said, shifting his attention to the Addams scion. "Mere students have no chance against a Basilisk, let alone one this powerful."

Wednesday ignored him, though she would much rather have cursed him. "Potter, Weasley, do either of you know any useful spells?"

Silence.

"What would be useful?"

"Oh lord, we're dead." Xander moaned.

"Hey!" Ron bristled, eyes still shut. "We can take you anytime you slimy snake!"

"With what? Rictusempra?" Xander countered.

"This is not helping."

"Sorry." Xander said, noting the tone in her voice.

"We just have to hold on," Harry spoke up, "Dumbledore will find us!"

"We're in the Chamber of Secrets, Dude!" Xander countered, "If he didn't find it fifty years ago, what makes you think he'll find it now?"

"Dumbledore is a stupid old fool," Tom Riddle's voice said smugly. "Accept your fate, you are already dead."

"SHUT UP!" Harry snapped, "Dumbledore is a great wizard! The most powerful one alive! He'll find us, and if he doesn't he'll still stop you!"

"You're a deluded child...!" Tom's voice began, only to be cut off when a pure sweet song cut through the air, softening all other noises in the chamber. "What!?"

"It's Fawkes." Wednesday said, eyes climbing to the bird as it circles. "The Headmaster's Phoenix. Watch out, Harry! It's dropping something."

Harry flinched as something landed on his head, but kept his eyes shut. "What is it?"

"Hello again there, Mr. Potter."

"H... Hat?" Harry asked, feeling the rumpled cloth on his head.

"Indeed, The Headmaster's birdy thought you may need something from me. Just a moment now and all will be clear."

Wednesday's eyes widened as she watched the Phoenix turn on the Basilisk, slamming into its eyes and scratching viciously. "I think you can open your eyes now."

The other three blinked, looking around, and soon found themselves enthralled by the battle in progress. The Snake's eyes were destroyed by the bird's assault, but it retaliated with a vicious twist of its body and slammed the phoenix across the chamber.

"Fawkes!" Harry screamed out, charging forward.

"This is the Headmaster's help?" Tom asked dryly. "A battered old hat and a crippled songbird. Even with its gaze you stand no chance against the basilisk!"

Xander and Wednesday had stepped forward, ignoring the blathering memory, and were raining bone splitter curses down on the large snake with depressingly little effect.

"How the hell do you kill one of these things!?" Xander yelled.

"The crow of a rooster," Wednesday replied between curses.

"Oh great." Xander muttered, "And we didn't bring one of those with us WHY!?"

"Someone killed them all weeks ago, there are none for miles."

"Figures."

As they bantered back and forth the snake had decided to take the fight to the two main threats, twisting violently as it rocketed across the chamber directly at them.

"We should move." Wednesday declared quietly as the snake closed the distance in mere seconds.

"Right with you!" Xander yelled, diving into her as the Basilisk drove straight at the Addams girl.

Wednesday sprawled out of the way, leaving Xander in her place as the snake reared up, its mouth opening wide to reveal gleaming and dripping teeth.

"Difindo Ossi!" Xander let out, wand leveled at the snake's mouth.

The Basilisk let out a roar of pain or rage loud enough to shake the world and began to violently curl around on itself as the spell struck on its upper fangs and split it from the beast's mouth. Xander stared stupidly at it for a moment until Ron and Wednesday grabbed him from behind and yanked him out of the way of the mass of muscled coils.

"Whoa!" Xander muttered from where he was sitting on the ground, "Did you see that?"

"Very nice spell, too bad you forgot to move afterwards," Wednesday told him dryly.

"Yeah, mate," Ron muttered, "A bit thick, that."

Xander shot him a dirty look, but was distracted by the snake getting its act together again and rising up to strike at them.

"We're boned."

As it crashed down, however, Harry dove in between them with a sword in his hand, driving it up into the snake's mouth and through its brain pain from the underside. For a moment it seemed to pause, then the huge bugger crashed down on Harry, practically burying him and crushing down on the others.

"Mate!" Ron yelled, lurching to his feet, pushing himself free of the coils.

Xander groaned from where he was pushed into the ground, dragging himself out from under the huge serpent, and glared at Wednesday who had somehow managed to be in the one spot the snake didn't hit.

"How do you do that?" He asked the serene looking Addams, spitting out blood from a split lip as he bled from multiple scrapes.

"Do what?" She asked calmly.

"Never mind." Xander sighed. "Yo, Ron! Harry ok?"

There was a long silence.

"Ron!?" Xander started climbing over the snake, stopping when he spotted Ron kneeling over Harry. "Jesus, Harry you don't look too good."

The black haired boy smiled weakly back, "Thanks a lot."

Xander's eyes followed the blood trail on the other boy, to where the Basilisk mouth was closed over his arm, and saw the tooth that had penetrated Harry's arm.

"Damn." He whispered.

"He'll be dead in moments."

Xander growled, sending a bone splitter into the memory of Tom Riddle. The spell phased through him easily, leaving the memory to smirk.

"Help me up." Harry said.

"Mate, you need to stay down."

"I said help me UP."

Ron swallowed, but nodded, helping Harry up. Xander grimaced when he saw the tooth still jabbed through Harry's arm, broken off from the snake itself. The redhead helped his friend out from the mess of dead snake, Harry pale as a ghost as he glared at the memory of Tom Riddle.

"You won't win. I won't let you." He gasped out.

"Big words from a child only moments from death, boy."

Harry cast around and found what he was seeking. With a surge of strength he broke from Ron's grip and stumbled to the ground, grabbing the diary from where it lay beside Ginny Weasley.

"What are you doing!?"

Harry jerked the tooth from his arm, smiling a death's head grin at Tom, and jabbed it into the diary with the last of his strength. The Diary began to smoke instantly, and Tom began to scream. In seconds there was black smoke rising from the ruined book, and a spirit like form erupted from it, howling in pain, and then vanished.

Harry collapsed back as the others stared in shock.

"Whoa." Xander muttered.

There was silence for a long moment, then the phoenix song erupted again as Fawkes circled around and landed by Harry. The bird looked the boy up and down for a long moment, the tilted its head sideways and shed a single tear into the wound.

"It's... it's closing up." Ron said, leaning over Harry's arm.

Xander slumped down on the coil of deadly serpent and let out a sigh. "Yeah. You know what, next year, leave me out of you adventures. K?"

Ron stared at him, gaping for a long moment, but Xander just ignored him as he thumped the side of the snake idly.

"Oh yeah, and just FYI," He said, "I'm staking a claim here and now, I'm getting me a pair of snakeskin boots out of this deal at the very LEAST."


	33. Chapter 33

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Escaping the Chamber proved to be a bit of a trick, given the fact that the tunnel back to the girl's washroom was a slime covered slide. Ron and Wednesday carried Harry out that far while Xander put the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley over his shoulder in a fireman's carry like he'd been taught in gym class and followed along.

"How the hell are we going to get up that?" Xander muttered, looking at the slide with distaste.

"I doubt that Salazar would have designed his chamber with this as the only way in and out." Wednesday replied, looking around.

"That doesn't help up much," Ron complained, "Unless the snake over there has some Slytherin secrets to spill."

Xander and Wednesday exchanged glances, but neither commented.

"Any alternate is probably guarded the same way as this one," Xander said instead, "So with Harry out cold, unless either of you two can speak snake, we're looking at the only way out."

Ron grimaced, and Wednesday shook her head.

"No, the Addams' never developed a talent for Speaking, pre say." She said, shrugging her shoulders, "We can understand almost any language, and make ourselves understood, but we don't actually speak the other languages. That's why Father loves French so much, he's never been able to speak any language but English but always had a fascination with the romance languages."

Xander half smirked, "I think your Dad loves French cause your Mom is the one speaking it."

Wednesday smiled slightly, then shrugged.

"Ok," Xander looked up the tunnel, "That's a long way up and we've got two people who need medical attention in a hurry. Suggestions?"

"One of us could climb out," Ron said, brow furrowed, "Go for help?"

"Maybe." Xander nodded, "You think you could make it up that thing?"

Ron grimaced, "I don't know, but we've got to try, right?"

"Unless we find another option, yeah."

"So I'll try."

"Wednesday?" Xander asked, "Any ideas?"

She looked up the tunnel, shrugged, "Wingardium doesn't work on people, Mobilicorpus will help for a bit, but that's well out of its range."

"We could chain it." Xander suggested, "lift each other up in steps."

She nodded, "true. Or we could ask the Phoenix."

A trill of amused joy filled the air, startling Xander, who spun around. "Huh?"

"I suspect that he's been following us for a reason," She said.

"Son of a... I never saw tweety sneak up on us," Xander muttered. "How can he help?"

An impromptu lesson in Care of Magical Creatures later, Xander watched as Ron hung on to Harry in a death grip while Fawkes extended a tail feather to him. He grasped it and with a breath of surprise they vanished up the tunnel in a rush. Fawkes was back in instant later and the remaining three were rushing through the air with an ease that surprised Xander. It was like he was floating, even his grip on Ginny Weasely wasn't weighing him down in the slightest.

At the top he grinned at the bird, "That was a rush, Tweety. Thanks."

Fawkes trilled out another uplifting note, then pecked him on the head before vanishing in flames.

"Ow! What the hell!?"

"Come on," Ron cut him off, " We have to get them to the infirmary."

* * *

They burst into the infirmary, shocking Madam Pomfrey into immediate action as they deposited the two onto the beds and then collapsed themselves. It only took moments for the doors to burst open again, the headmaster leading a whole clan of redheads along with Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Sir!" Ron blurted, " Mom, Dad! We got Ginny... we found her!"

"Yes, we see Mr. Weasley," The kindly old man said, smiling, "May I ask how...?"

"Weren't you kicked out of the school?" Xander asked, his mouth running ahead of his brain.

Dumbledore looked at him intently for a moment as everyone else scowled openly at Xander.

"Indeed I was, Mr. Harris. I came back as soon as I heard of Miss Weasley's predicament."

Xander nodded, laying back as he waited for Madame Pomfrey to have a moment to patch up his minor scrapes. What the headmaster said made sense, he supposed, except that if he hadn't been able to do anything to help the others, what did he expect to be able to do for Ginny Weasley? Probably a family thing, he decided, as he watched the Weasley clan pour over their injured daughter/sister.

Ron was telling the tale, and Xander just tuned him out as he lay back and watched Wednesday from across the room. She was looking back at him with that dark intensity of hers, and for the moment the others in the room faded away. They didn't matter, the only ones who mattered were the ones who went down into the chamber.

Even Ron, Xander thought with a quirk of his lips.

Wednesday seemed to pick up on his thought, eyes turning to the redhead for a moment as he extolled on the 'battle', then she rolled her eyes expressively and lay back to rest. Xander did the same himself, only listening long enough to hear that Harry and Ginny would be fine before he let himself doze off.

* * *

The next few days were a blur, people coming through and asking questions, other's celebrating, most just staring at the subjects of the latest rumors. Hermione and the other victims were returned to normal and rejoined the school, much subdued from their former attitudes, and Harry was released from the infirmary to wild acclaim when he joined the school for his first feast since the incident.

Xander was getting the cold shoulder from his house, as was becoming normal he found, since the rumors had him working with Potter and that was tantamount to betrayal most vile. He shrugged it off, spent his days with Wednesday and Hermione, and tried to relax. Harry's awakening was the time they were waiting for, though, so he and Wednesday ambushed Harry, Ron, and Hermione right after the feast.

* * *

"Hey."

Harry turned, smiling, "Xander. How are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"Better. I didn't see you much while I was in the infirmary," Harry said, sounding hesitant.

"Nothing personal, dude," Xander half smiled, "But I knew you'd be ok, and frankly it's getting dangerous around certain members of my house who shall go unnamed."

Harry grimaced, "Sorry."

"Nothing to do with you. My choice, dude." Xander shrugged, "But look, we've got to talk."

Harry nodded and they retreated to a more quiet position.

"We want to go back down there," Xander said.

"Are you bonkers!?" Ron blurted.

"A Basilisk of that size should not go to waste." Wednesday said calmly.

"Waste? It's a dead snake." Ron countered, "Good riddance."

"Dude, I told you. I'm getting my boots out of this mess, at the least." Xander countered, then shrugged, "besides, I need some magical material for some side projects. I scored a couple unicorn hairs from Hagrid, and some other random stuff, but a thousand year old snake? Come on, tell me that doesn't sound like some powerful stuff?"

Harry shivered, "I don't know, Xander. I don't really want to go down there."

"Don't have to." Xander said, "Just open the door, we've worked out how we'll get back up. Come back later and make sure it's open for us. Deal?"

Harry shrugged, "I guess."

"Barmy, the lot of you." Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, Ronald," Hermione cut in, "They're right, you know. But do you know how to properly harvest the materials? This sounds like something the Professors should..."

She cut off, nearly jumping out of her skin when two large and gleaming knives appeared in Wednesday's hands.

"I have experience."

Everyone, Xander included, moved quickly away from the dark girl. Xander shook his head, "Jeez, Wednesday, that's just creepy!"

"I know." She smiled.

Harry swallowed, "How long do you need?"

"Five hours if I do it alone, seven if Alexander helps."

"Hey!"

* * *

The plan made they waited until the weekend to execute it. Xander and Wednesday went down alone on Saturday morning, with Hermione fretting and Ron shaking his head as Harry closed the passage behind them. They found the snake again and Wednesday went to work while Xander poked around for the most part, helping only when the girl had a specific job for him.

The Chamber was a mess, all things considered, but that was to be expected he supposed. After a thousand years things were going to be a little run down. Xander checked out some of the side tunnels, and found that they extended out some distance from the castle in all directions.

"I think it's a bolt hole," He said, coming back to where Wednesday was joyously cutting into the big snake.

"That is likely," She told him, excising a venom sac with quick motions.

"No way anyone built this place after the castle was constructed," Xander mused, "At least not normally. Maybe with magic, I suppose."

Wednesday was humming slightly to herself, not responding, but he wasn't really expecting her too.

The day passed quickly like that, until they were done. The materials were properly stored in their trunks, and they made their way back to the tunnel. This time they were ready and proceeded to leapfrog each other, and their trunks, up the tunnel with a combination of Mobilicorpus and Wingardium spells, along with sticking charms so they could rest for a few minutes at a time.

At the top, Xander knocked on the secret door and it instantly opened to reveal Harry.

"You ok?"

"We're good. All done." Xander said, "Thanks, man."

Harry shook his head, "You two helped save Ginny, thank you."

"That thing hurt Hermione," Xander said, glancing at Wednesday. "Nothing hurts one of our friends and gets to brag about it, even if it is a giant snake."

The Addams girl nodded once in satisfaction, "Exactly."


	34. Chapter 34

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The Final exams were canceled, something that didn't bother Xander so much on one level, but did leave him wondering how in the hell the school could work out where people were in a given grade if they did that. Hermione, in between bouts of sulking, explained to him that the yearly scores didn't actually have any impact on their grades.

In actuality only the OWLs and NEWTs counted, and those were tested in their fifth and seventh years. The regular class scores existed merely to allow professors to gage who needed more attention in preparation for those two events.

He filed that away as interesting, especially when he learned that OWL and NEWT exams were standardized at the ICW level.

The remainder of the school year degenerated into a series of practical reviews while they were in class, and hanging out with friends while outside of class.

Two days after they had finished harvesting the Basilisk components, however, Xander and the others realized something shocking.

* * *

In the Great Hall the students were eating supper when Dumbledore rose up and gave a little speech about the Chamber, and the heroics of those who had gone down to save Ginevra, but as he was finishing his speech he paused and looked to his right briefly at an empty seat.

"Alas," he said, "No luck has been had in the search for our Defense Professor, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. We can only hope that he is once more out saving lives and doing good in the world.

A series of snorts and outright laughter echoed through the hall, but Xander Harris was sitting bolt upright with wide eyes. A quick glance around told him that Harry and Ron were doing the same, though Wednesday had already gone back to eating.

Xander looked at the Gryffindors, and they stared back at him, and the same thought blasted through their heads.

We left Lockhart in the Chamber!

* * *

"Should we go after him?" Ron asked when they got together after.

"After him where?" Xander asked, "He wasn't there when we went down after the Basilisk."

"Where could he go?" Harry blurted.

"I wandered a bit, there are tunnels ALL through that place, probably going for miles." Xander admitted. "He could be anywhere."

"We can't just leave him down there." Harry groaned, "Damn that prat. He's torturing us even while he's gone."

Xander sighed, "I guess we'd better tell Dumbledore."

* * *

They went to the headmaster's office and were mildly surprised when the Gargoyle jumped aside as they approached. The group had to duck aside when Arthur, Molly, and Ginny Weasely came down.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Ginny," Arthur scolded his daughter, "How many times have I told you to be careful of intelligent magical items when you can't tell where they're holding their minds?"

"I'm sorry Dad." Ginny said miserably.

"Gin!" Ron blurted, "I didn't know you were out, are you ok?"

"I'm fine." She said, sneaking a glance at Harry, then looking straight at him. "Thank you for saving me, Harry."

"Wasn't just me, Gin. Ron, Xander, and Wednesday were right there with me." Harry told her with a friendly smile.

"Well, thank you anyway." She said, then looked at the other two, "And thanks."

"You're my sister, course I was gonna go." Ron mumbled.

Xander just shrugged, "No problem. I had my own reasons for going down."

"Well whatever they were, we can't thank you all enough." Molly said, gushing. "You helped save our Ginny."

Xander just shrugged a little, not knowing how to respond.

"Are you going to see the Headmaster?" Arthur asked.

"Uh... yeah."

"Well go on up, but you'd better hurry," Molly advised, "I think he's meeting with Lucius Malfoy later."

"Ok, thanks." Harry said, hurrying up with the other two following.

* * *

Albus stared at them, his eye twinkle dancing as bright as ever.

"So, to be clear," He said, "You broke both of Professor's Lockhart's arms and left him to wander through the catacombs under Hogwarts?"

Harry grimaced, "Well..."

"He had it coming." Ron blurted, "The git was going to Obliviate us!"

"Harry," Dumbledore sighed, "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to open the entrance for us so we can locate our missing professor."

Harry nodded.

The headmaster chuckled, "it's just as well, I believe that Severus wanted to go down and see what he could recover from the Basilisk."

The three student's eyes bulged and they looked at each other for a moment.

"Uh... Of course, Sir." Harry blurted, swallowing hard.

Dumbledore looked between them for a moment, then leaned back, "In the meantime, Harry why don't you stay. I believe that the meeting with Lucius would be very... educational for you. You two may go."

"Thank you, Sir." Xander and Ron said together, practically bolting for the door.

Once outside then paused, looking at each other.

"Blimey! Snape is going to skin *us* when he sees that you already got the Basilisk!"

"I just hope we can get out of school before it comes to that," Xander said, shaking his head. "Maybe we can convince him that Lockhart got to it first?"

Ron grinned, "I'd love to see the ponce run when Snape found him.

* * *

The remaining days passed without incident, as Dumbledore had decided to get Harry to open the chamber and leave it open over the holidays so the teachers could examine the forgotten section of the school while they searched for Lockhart. Xander sort of hoped that the idiot didn't get himself killed, but really what was he thinking running off when the slide was the way in?

He and Wednesday sat together on the train as it pulled away from Hogsmeade, heading back toward London, and Xander had to admit it had been an interesting year. He had learned a ton of stuff, granted most of it hadn't been from his teachers but what the hell, they'd had some good times, an adventure or two, and things had worked out.

Not too shabby.

He was getting along, more or less, with his house... minor speedbumps like helping Harry in the chamber aside. He had some good friends, and he knew that Hermione and Wednesday weren't going to turn on him for sure. Harry was an ok sort, and even Ron was starting to seem like a decent guy.

He did have some things on his mind, though. Some worries, some dark concerns.

First, what was he going to do to his Uncle, cause there HAD to be some retaliation there. He had an idea, but wasn't sure if it was over the top or not.

Second, though, was bothering him deeply.

Something Arthur Weasley had said to Ginny was preying on his mind.

Don't trust magical objects that show intelligence when you can't see where they hold their brain.

Xander looked down at the book that had been so important to him over the past two years and glared at it. Finally he sighed and opened it to one of the interactive sections, then pulled out his fountain pen.

With careful, neat lettering, Xander wrote in the section.

_Who are you?_


	35. Chapter 35

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The trip back stateside was uneventful, and within hours Xander and Wednesday were at Salem, wandering across the campus and waiting for a meeting scheduled with the Headmaster. Arthur Fitzpatrick watched them for a while, observing the two from a distance. He'd heard a lot about both of them, through Professor Hardy as well as others.

The young Addams girl had a frightening intellect, quite possibly in every meaning on the expression, and her records bore that out. Harris, on the other hand, had been an average student in non-magical courses by all accounts. According to his teachers he was a slacker, and while certainly not stupid he wasn't particularly intelligent either.

Arthur wondered if the teachers were incompetent, or if the introduction of magic had changed the child profoundly. While he wasn't a genius, Alexander Harris had proven to be quite impressive in hands on magic. Various reports indicated that the boy could cast a Protego, Stunner, and some other advanced dueling charms well beyond his experience.

His practical test results bore that out, though his theoretical knowledge was spotty at best. Some people just learned better from doing, Arthur knew well, and he suspected that Mr. Harris was one of those.

The Headmaster of the Salem Institute smiled crookedly and strode out into the quad toward his two wayward students.

"Ah, Miss Addams, Mr. Harris. Good to see you both again."

"Sir." They both said, nodding respectfully.

"I wished to see how you both were doing, in the wake of the events at Hogwarts this year. I understand it must have been stressful."

They glanced at each other, then shrugged as one.

Franklin, that's creepy. Arthur thought, shaking off the shiver.

"We're fine, Sir." Wednesday said.

"Good, good. I understand that the Hogwarts tests were canceled this year?"

"Yes Sir. Headmaster Dumbledore believed that the school had been stressed enough," Wednesday told him in a dry, almost sarcastic tone.

"Yes, well, Albus generally does as he thinks best. I would prefer if you two were to take some short practical tests here before you leave for the summer?" Arthur asked, "Strictly speaking, I can't require it, and neither do I want to add to your stress as you said, but it would be very good for your records, and my paperwork, if you consented."

Again the two did that simultaneous glance then head bob as they responded together.

"Of course Sir."

Creepy.

* * *

The tests, all Oral and practical, were easily accomplished for the duo and the teachers confirmed on the spot that they were where they should be at least and not to worry about it. As they had been told at Hogwarts, the only test results that counted were first the OWLs, and then later the NEWTs. All other examinations were for internal school use only, and didn't have any real impact upon graduation.

The two spent the rest of their time, while waiting for Wednesday's family to arrive exploring the school grounds and library. Since they had been informed that they could borrow books for summer reading, as any student was permitted, Xander quickly located some books on Wand Crafting for himself, and noted idly that Wednesday was digging into the schools index of rarer potions tomes.

"Will they let you borrow those?" he asked, curious.

"Unlikely, however as we are students here, technically speaking, we can come in at any time during the year to do research." She told him, "I am merely determining what is available."

Xander nodded, "Cool."

She eyed his books briefly, "Are you intending to replace your wand?"

Xander shrugged, "I don't know. I just want to learn a bit about it."

He drew his wand, flipping it idly over his fingers as he looked at the piece of wood. "Pretty much the only thing that separates us from anyone else out there is this stick. I know I'm not powerful enough to ever learn anything more than the most basic of wandless tricks, so without a wand I may as well go back to Sunnydale."

Wednesday considered his words and while she didn't entirely agree with what she felt he meant, she knew that his stated words were factual. Few wizards ever learned wandless casting, it was frightfully consuming on a Wizard's energy. It wasn't that it required more power, though it did, but rather that the focus required was mentally exhausting.

Only the most powerful AND disciplined minds ever mastered true wandless magic.

She was rather fond of Alexander, but knew that he had neither the power nor mental control required. One of those may be corrected, but short of a very few extremely dark rituals, the other never would. She herself was on the cusp, her mental capacity was likely sufficient, however she didn't believe she had the magical stamina make wandless casting practical.

"I understand." She said finally, "you wish to understand what sets you apart."

"Well, yeah, that and I think wands are freaking cool." Xander grinned.

She resisted the desire to pinch the bridge of her nose and groan, Alexander had a way of testing even the limits of her control.

* * *

The Addamses came later that day for Wednesday and they said goodbye, exchanging promises to stay in contact regularly. Then Wednesday was gone and Xander retrieved the portkey that would sweep him across the nation.

A word activated it and in a cyclone of motion Xander landed in the Magical district of Sunnydale California. Not that it was much of a district really. More like a back alley several blocks west of the Bronze, right on the edge of the warehouse district. Perhaps two dozen Wizards in total lived within Sunnydale's city limits, most of them probably wanted by some law enforcement group *somewhere*.

Still, the Alley had wards keeping out non magical people and demons alike, which made it one of the safest places in the area according to what Xander had been told.

He dusted himself off from the landing, nodded to a passing witch who had seen better days maybe a century earlier, and made his way to the edge of the wards. He tapped on the footstone at one corner and waited for the doorway to appear. He stepped out into a dirty restroom that had a permanent 'closed for repairs' sign right under the word 'ladies', grimaced slightly, and walked out into the bar with Fenrir chasing after him.

"Hey Willy," He said, nodding to the man behind the bar.

"Hey kid, back already huh?" The squirmy looking man said, nodding to him.

"Yeah, all good in the Dale?"

"Same ol. No big news."

Xander nodded, not really pausing on his way by. "Well I'll see you later, Willy."

"Be watching for ya, kid."

Xander waved slightly, not looking back. He didn't notice, therefore, that Willy had paused in his wiping down of the bar to jot down a note on a pad he kept nearby.

* * *

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!"

Jessica Harris came out of the kitchen, smiling at her son. "Hey, Honey, how was the trip back?"

"It was a port key," Xander said dryly, pointing to the scuffs on his pants where he'd hit the ground.

She smiled in response, "I remember those. A little dizzy?"

"A bit, it's not too bad. The one from England was worse." Xander admitted.

Jessica nodded, "You went through international boundaries, and probably some hefty wards."

"Oh yeah? The put up wards around the country?"

Xander's mother frowned, "Not exactly, from what I recall. But there are many layers of wards all through New England."

"Oh," Xander shrugged, "Well anyway, it wasn't too bad."

"How did you do in school?"

"Decent, I guess. I'm better in practical stuff than bookwork, so those classes have better marks."

"You're not letting your bookwork slide are you?" She asked sternly.

Jessica was surprised when Xander laughed.

"Mom, if you knew my friends, you wouldn't ask about that."

She was about to ask for clarification when Anthony and Sam came in from the back.

"Son, good to see you home."

"Thanks, Dad. Pretty good to be back."

"Not missing the magical world already?" Anthony Harris asked, a bit of a bitter tone in his voice.

"Nah. Honestly, I'm missing TV right now." Xander grinned.

Sam laughed, "That's a sensible kid. You get my 'present', kid?"

Xander glared at Sam, "Oh yeah, and we need to have words."

"What? Wasn't it enough?" Sam asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Sam! You... You put a..." Xander grimaced before blurting, "SEX drug in my name!"

Tony and Sam burst out laughing as Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Come on, kid, it ain't that bad. You can't say the money wasn't good."

Xander sighed, "A hundred and fifty thousand galleons? Yeah, that's pretty good."

"Golden Eagles, actually." Sam corrected, "Comes out around a hundred and thirty thousand Galleons, depending on the exchange. Over a million bucks, USD. That's pretty damn decent. And it's just the advance, once that stuff passes the FDA you get five percent!"

Jessica could see Xander grimacing again and broke in, "I don't entirely agree with Sam's actions, Alex, but he did do well by you. And the money will ensure that your future is provided for."

"I just want to know what the hell you were trying to cook up in the first place," Tony cracked, and started laughing.

That broke Sam up, and in a moment Xander and his mother were watching them, one with a resigned look on her face, and the other with one that promised retribution.

* * *

Who are you?

Narcissa Malfoy stared at the text for a long time, wondering what had brought the boy to a realization that he was dealing with a person?

Few wizards of any stripe would have made that connection, not in a world where self-updating books were common and magic seemed to breathe life into the lifeless on a daily basis. It was a penetrating question, one that took her by surprise and made her think.

This one was growing up, she supposed.

Alright, it was time then.

She opened her copy to the index page and pressed a wand to the paper. In a moment a big black dog raced out, panting eagerly as he stared up at her from the pages.

"Alright, Sirius," She said tolerantly. "You may consider yourself off restriction."

The dog barked sharply, jumped around on the page, and then ran across the book and off the page on the other side.

Narcissa sighed, smiling slightly at the memory of her cousin, and carefully and deliberately took a quill and began to compose her answer to the young man's question.


	36. Chapter 36

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander called Jessie and Willow first thing after he'd unpacked, and in short order the two were over at his place and they were getting caught up on the past year while some of the shows Jessie had taped for him played in the VCR.

"A Prank war?" Jessie cackled, "You've got to be kidding."

"No, these twins are insane," Xander grinned, "Though I have to admit I almost thought I was dead meat when one of the pranks I set up caught the teachers."

"You pranked the TEACHERS!?" Willow screamed while Jessie laughed.

"Yeah, but I got it blamed on the twins." Xander smirked, then frowned as he considered, "Though it did get a little out of hand. The pranks weren't bad, but one of the teachers reacted kinda... stupid. Made things worse."

Jessie was still laughing as Willow openly scowled at him.

"Anyway, it was an ok year except for the snake." Xander said.

"Snake?" The two blurted together.

Xander nodded, "yeah, once got loose and bit some students. Caused a bit of an uproar."

Willow shivered. Snakes she did NOT like. Jessie just whistled softly, "Cool dude."

"Anyway, it's summer, I got money, and while I do have some work to do I also want to have some fun. What do you two say?" Xander asked with a grin, "up for a real blast of a summer?"

"Sure, what have you got in mind?" Jessie grinned back as Willow nodded.

"Well, I figure we take at least one day a week and do something awesome." Xander said, "Theme parks, a day in LA, whatever. Sound good?"

"Sounds cool to me, good with you Wills?" Jessie looked over.

Willow nodded, "I think I can sell my parents on the idea."

The deal made the trio settled in to watch some more TV until Jessie had to go home for Supper. Willow, who lived closer, lagged behind.

"Xander, were those stories true?" She asked when they were alone.

He nodded, "Just underplayed. The snake was actually a sixty foot long Basilisk."

Willow 'eeped'. "You're kidding!"

Xander shook his head.

"You HAVE to be kidding!"

"I wish. It petrified a friend of mine," Xander said, frowning. He then smiled slightly and looked up at Willow, "Hermione, actually. She's kinda like English-Willow."

"Hey! I speak English!"

Xander chuckled, "Not what I meant. Anyway, yeah the stories were true."

"Jeeze. Are you sure you want to go back there?"

Xander thought about it, then shrugged, "Yeah, I think so. It's awesome, Wills. We're learning stuff you only see in movies and comics. Come on downstairs, I want to show you some of my notes."

Down in the basement that had been set aside for Xander's 'magical studies', he broke out his notebook and showed it to Willow. She skimmed through it quickly, then looked at him with a curious eye.

"Magical tattoos?"

"It sounded cool?" Xander replied with a weak smile.

She rolled her eyes, "Can I borrow this, Xan? I'll bring it back tomorrow."

"Sure."

"Ok, I'll see you then," She said, getting up to leave. "It's real good to have you home. Bye."

"Bye."

* * *

It took some convincing, but the three of them managed to convince their parents and the first excursion day was set for the beginning of the following week. Xander and the other two settled in to a bit of a routine otherwise, watching TV and doing whatever came to mind. With Willow he found himself working on his projects, as well as a bit on homework, and he spent his time with Jessie pouring over comic books and Jessie's latest obsession, Role Playing Games.

It turned out that, without Xander around, Jessie had started hanging out with Jonathan and the Wells brothers, as well as some of their friends. That group was into the geek scene SO much more than Xander had ever been, but it was fun to be immersed back into a years' worth of total geekdom in just a few days.

The books were cool too, since they gave him ideas for things to research when he went back to his projects.

It was his Uncle who surprised Xander, though. Sam had showed up to make sure Xander was still working out as he'd begun to the year before, and express disgust at how much Xander had slacked off, then he got serious for a bit.

"Hey kid," Sam said after one workout, while Xander was wiping the sweat away, "got someone I'd like you to meet."

Xander shrugged, "Sure, unc. Who?"

"He's family," Sam told him, "Squib, same as me, from way back. He asked about you after you left last year."

"Oh yeah? How come?"

"Keeps tabs on the family, heard you were going to magic school I guess."

Xander nodded, "Alright. When?"

"Today, if you want. He's out near LA, I'll drive you."

The drive out was peaceful, leaving Xander relaxed as they drove up to a nice colonial style home tucked into the hills maybe an hour out of Los Angeles. Sam brought him in and they found a really old man sitting on the porch, looking out over the Ocean.

"Hello Robert." Sam said respectfully, pausing at the porch steps.

"Sam. This your nephew then?" The old man asked, looking Xander over carefully.

Sam nodded.

"Well don't just stand there, come on up, take a seat."

They did, and there was a moment of silence before the old man looked at Xander again.

"I understand the Family has been showing an interest in you."

Xander shrugged, "I suppose so, Sir. I don't really know much about it."

The old man snorted, "Don't suppose you would. Watch out for the Harris' son, we're a sneaky lot."

Xander smiled weakly at the man.

"Anyway, Sam also tells me that you're taking schooling abroad?"

"Hogwarts, Sir."

Robert nodded, "Was a good school in my day, haven't heard anything much about it lately, but then I don't keep up like I used to."

The conversation fell into a lull for a long moment, then just as Xander opened his mouth to ask why the old man wanted to see him, Robert spoke up again.

"So tell me, son, what happened over there this year?"

Xander blinked, "Pardon?"

Robert chuckled, "Last year Sam and your Dad are telling me about how you were a Wizard and all, then this year past the family starts buzzing about you, and just last week you'd think someone dropped a live grenade in the Elder Harris' lap. You're causing waves, son, and I'd like to know why."

"What does it matter to you?" Xander asked, a little put out that his life was being watched so closely.

"Me? Nothing much. To be honest, I probably won't be around much longer anyway. To the family, though, it may matter."

"Wasn't anything much, just a memory of that psycho dark lord." Xander shrugged, "Loosed a basilisk on the school, didn't have much to do with me, I just went down with the guy who killed it."

The old man snorted, "Wasn't anything much. Funny. And the year before?"

"Hey, I had nothing to do with that." Xander protested, "That was all Harry and his group."

Robert chuckled, "You're an interesting lad, Alexander. What are you studying beyond the basics, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Nothing really," Xander said, "I'm signed up for Arithmancy and Runes next year, but those are my first electives."

Robert nodded, "Any history classes?"

"American Wizarding History and History of Magic," Xander responded.

Robert exchanged glances with Sam, then turned back to Xander. "Tell me, do you plan on living solely in the Wizarding world, lad?"

"I don't know, but I doubt it. I'm not giving up my TV," Xander declared.

The two men chuckled at that, but shook their heads.

"Not what I meant, but it answers the question well enough." Robert said with a sigh, "You know, most children who go into the magical world never come back. They lose the ability to exist in the realm of mere mortals. Even those who were born to completely normal parents."

Xander frowned, "how come?"

"Because, from the age of eleven all they see is magic for ten months of the year. By eighteen, the normal world has moved on without them, and that was decades ago. Today you can lose your place in the world in even less time."

Xander grimaced at the thought, but another one was pushing to the surface. "Why are you guys so intent on all this stuff?"

Sam laughed, "Told ya he'd ask."

"So you did, whelp." Robert grumbled good naturedly, then turned back to Xander. "We're interested because it suits us to have a contact who can walk in both worlds."

"Can't you?"

"We're both Squibs," Robert explained, "We know the magical world, but the magical world doesn't really want to know us."

"Sounds like those idiot pureblood types in England."

"To a degree, yes."

"So what do you guys want?"

"For now? To do you a favor, if you really want to walk in both worlds. Later, well we'll talk about later when it comes." Robert said.

"Did the rumors mention I was sorted into Slytherin?" Xander asked dryly, "Cause you've got to be cracked if you think I'm going to agree to anything without knowing the end price."

They laughed, "No end price, lad. We don't recruit or blackmail children. However, by helping you now we at least have a chance at a future arrangement. That's something we won't have if you vanish completely into the magical."

Xander frowned, he'd never thought about it in those terms.

"Alright, what did you have in mind?"


	37. Chapter 37

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Lately it seemed that no matter what Xander did, or which way he turned, he was faced with more work than he'd ever imagined he'd do, let alone want to do. Sam and Robert had offered him some tutoring in subjects more useful in the normal world, including more exercise and some actual fight training this summer, and Xander had accepted.

Then he arrives home and cracks open his favorite book, the Grimoire of the Coven, and found a long note in the interactive section of the book.

_Who Am I._

_That, young man, is an interesting question with a detailed response. Simply, I was Miss Black._

_Xander blinked, looking at the words in surprise. Was? Did she die? Was this something like Riddle's diary then? He read on._

_Before my marriage that was my name, at least. Today I use another name, one that isn't important for the moment._

_Xander sighed, grinning a little to himself. At least he wasn't facing some weird Dark Chick trying to do whatever. Well, probably wasn't facing that anyway._

_When I went to school, Miss Evans, Miss Prewitt, and myself became... unlikely friends. We shared some classes, and some acquaintances, and eventually many things together as we grew from the young girls we were to the women we became. Miss Evans was killed not long after graduating, her family's opposition to the Dark Lord finally demanding the ultimate price. Miss Prewitt now resides in St Mungo's, where she has been since almost the same time, and will likely remain for the rest of her days._

_They were both reliable and very good friends, and while still in school we made an agreement. We would help any who came across the book you now hold, regardless of their blood or their politics. You see, We three held very different views in those regards, views that ultimately led us down the roads we have taken, to the destinations we each found._

_The words within this tome are not political, they are not intended to sway your thinking or your actions. They are, however, the opinions of three very different young women who came of age in a difficult time and so are highly charged and should always be carefully considered before being accepted as truth or falsehood._

_So, the answer to your question is that I am who I agreed to be when I made the pact with Miss Evans and Miss Prewitt. I am who they would be, if they could. I am your advisor, occasionally your tutor, and if it is so required I will be your confidant. Nothing you write in this book with be shared with anyone else on pain of the Oath we took, of that you have the word of the Coven._

_Narcissa Malfoy Nee Black of the Coven_

_Ps. I do apologize for the plague I have unleashed upon you, however as it is your third year certain agreements have to be upheld._

Xander gulped.

Plague?

Then he frowned. The plague was scary, but he suspected that it was less than lethal, whatever it was, and so it took second place. First place was taken quickly by the name 'Malfoy'.

Was she related to Draco? She almost had to be, which made a certain sense as he thought about it. Miss Black was a blood purist, Xander knew from reading her entries. She didn't have a particularly low opinion of muggle borns and all, but she still believed in the superiority of breeding.

No Matter how he looked at it, things were starting to get interesting.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Xander nearly jumped out of his skin. The coven grimoire suddenly jumped on the desk, as the large black dog that represented Sirius Black bounded into view. The dog began barking up a storm, its cartoonlike speech bubbles blocking out the page as it seemed to be trying to get Xander's attention.

His attention it got, and Xander quickly forgot about the note from the coven member at he tried to get rid of the dog that was in the process of befouling his pages.

"No, stop it! I said stop it, don't eat that! No, I need those notes! You crazy mutt," Xander screamed at the book, trying in vain to get the dog to behave.

The black dog was jumping up and down, obviously having the time of its life, gleefully ignoring Xander's protestations. After several minutes of this, Xander finally gave up and slumped down in his chair. Shortly after that happened dogs excited rampage, came to a stop. Xander slowly looked back up at the book, and found the dog staring seriously out at him.

For a long moment the two looked at each other, and then the dog slowly began to shift morphing into a bottle of ink, and then finally into a man.

"Now you've finally learned it's futile to fight a marauder," the man grinned up at him, "let's move on to the fun stuff."

* * *

Sirius Black was insane. That was all Xander had to say on the subject.

No, scratch that. Xander had a hell of a lot more to say, the problem though, was that Sirius wasn't listening. Instead the black mongrel of a shape shifter was tearing through Xander's notes and lessons and generally making a pain of himself. Not that he cared what Xander thought, of course.

Still, the man knew his magic.

Practically against his will, Xander found himself learning from the troublemaker. Sirius went in-depth into what he called the noble art of the prank, though to Xander it often sounded like good old-fashioned bullying. That said, while he didn't approve of Sirius's methods of identifying the target, Xander had to admit that the ideas were scary good.

In fact, he shuddered to imagine the twins with the amount and kind of information that Black was feeding him.

The first weekly trio trip, as Xander had taken to calling it, came along not a moment too soon. Between black, his relatives, and Willow, Xander figured he was working harder on his holidays than he did during school. So when, under the supervision of Jessie's mother, the trio headed for LA, Xander was determined to do nothing that even resembled work for the entire day.

* * *

"Disneyland," Jessie exclaimed, "I love this place!"

Xander laughed, draping an arm over the shoulder of both his best friends, dragging both closer to him as the trio walked in the magic kingdom. "This is going to be so cool."

"You know I heard they have great educational..."

"Hey!" Xander cut Willow off abruptly, holding up his hand a stop her in place. "We talked about this Willow, no work, no learning, only fun."

Jessie smirked and Willow, enjoying the outraged look on her face as she turned on Xander.

"Just because were having fun, doesn't mean we can't learn something to," Willow huffed at him, obviously spinning up for rant.

Xander just grinned at her, "today is not for learning Willow, today's for mindless, totally unproductive, and utterly time wasting, fun."

Will crossed her arms, glaring at Xander, who just kept on grinning back at her. Finally, after a long moment, she gave up and grinned back. "Alright fine."

"Yes!" Jessie crowed, pumping his arms in the air in triumph. "Let the fun times begin!"

Xander put his arms back around his two friends, and trailed by Jessie's mother, the trio made their way into the happiest place on earth.

* * *

The three of them spent their day going from ride to ride and show to show, and generally just having fun. For Xander it was the first time, and perhaps as much two years, that he just focused on nothing but fun. That thought struck him as they were leaving the park, and the concept actually staggered him for a moment.

It was insane, where was the slacker he used to be? He and Jessie had perfected their, don't care attitude, had spent hours on it even, and now what was he? The horror of horrors was that he was becoming, God forbid, Willow or Hermione.

Now there was a scary thought.

In all seriousness, though, it did worry him somewhat. The idea that he was losing himself kept coming back to him. He couldn't help it though, just the idea of magic and the things he could do, those kept him up at night. He would lie awake, staring up at the ceiling in the dark, and just try to mentally map out all the things he could accomplish.

It was like living in comic book, the wonder, the horror, the sheer infinite possibilities. It was, in plain and simple fact, a fantasy come true. How could any geek worthy of the title possibly do any less?

* * *

The day after the Disney trip, Willow came over in the morning and the two of them went down to the basement and immediately began to crack open the books.

"Have you been reading over the winter," Xander asked.

Willow nodded enthusiastically, "I've read all the theory, and even managed to practice some of potions, but it was hard keeping it from my dad."

Xander nodded, "they around more this year?"

Willow shrugged, "not really. But potions stink, so I can't really do any inside."

"Yeah I can see that." Xander responded, opening his notebook on wand making. "It kind of sucks that your dad is so close minded."

Willow grimaced, neither nodding nor refuting Xander's statement. "I guess, but I don't really want to give up my computer classes either. So I don't know, maybe I'm happier here?"

Xander shrugged, mulling that over. Finally shook his head, "you could be right. Wizards are a little strange, and really backwards it seems. As long as you doing what you love, I'll be happy for you."

Willow blushed red for a moment, ducking her head down to look at her toes, "thanks."

Xander just smiled, then looked down at his book. Willow took a moment to regain her composure, then looked over at what he was reading.

"Wand crafting?" Willow asked, her voice getting a touch of excitement. "You want to build a wand? Because I would really love to have one, you know if you thought you could do it, but it can be really frustrating reading through the books and not being able try the spells, you know..."

Xander laughed, holding up his hands to stem the flow of words from his friends' mouth. "Hold on, hold on. I'm just doing the basic reading, we are a long way from building one."

"Oh," Willow said, blushing again. "I was just, kind of you know, hoping and all."

"I know," Xander said sympathetically, "but it's supposed to be really hard to make a proper wand."

"How are they made?"

"Well according to what I've been reading modern wands are built with a wooden conduit," Xander said seriously, "that's around a magical core."

Willow blinked, "that sounds simple enough."

Xander shrugged, "where it gets complicated is the fact that no one knows why or how it works. At least no one knows is talking. In fact, I think I read almost a dozen different explanation so far and all of them contradict each other."

Willow scowled at the book, "there's no facts? Have there been any studies? There should be standards, shouldn't there? If every wizard or witch needs to use a wand wouldn't it make sense for want to be the most studied piece of magic in the world?"

Xander half shrugged, half smirked, "you just used the words wizard, witch, and sense in the same sentence. I'm pretty sure that violate the law somewhere."

When Willow scowled at him, Xander couldn't help himself, he broke down laughing much to his redheaded friends ire. As he laughed she kept glaring, which caused him to laugh harder, which in turn caused her to glare more. The circular reinforcement continued until Xander was clutching his side painfully, and even Willow was finally beginning to crack a smile.


	38. Chapter 38

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Hey kid, how was the week?"

Xander nodded to Robert, tossing down some of his exercise gear, "pretty good, you?"

"At my age kid, any morning I see the sun, that's a good morning." Robert grinned, belying the grim nature of his words. "So how is Sam treating anyway?"

Xander rolled his eyes, suppressing a groan. The aches and pains in his muscles had aches and pains of their own, but it wasn't something he exactly wanted to advertise.

The old man just grinned at him, "I know that look boy, seen it in my own eyes while looking in the mirror all too many times in the past. All I can tell you, is that it gets worse before it gets better."

This time Xander did groan, not even bothering to hide it. That was about the last thing he wanted to hear, "God man, are you guys sure I need all this? I mean, really, phys ed doesn't seem to be a real big deal in the wizarding world as far as I can tell."

Robert fell silent for a moment, looking at Xander intently. "Magic is a glorious thing boy, but like everything else it has its limits. I grew up in a small town in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Spent my first 15 years in the family home. Like you say, working out, making yourself stronger, it doesn't seem too important to most wizards, not on the physical level anyway. When I left, I learned that strength and muscle, those are things I could trust. It took painful lessons, but they were important lessons, lessons I paid for dearly."

The old man was quiet for a moment, as if considering what he'd said, or maybe considering what was left to be said.

"The most important thing a man can do right in this world, is learn from his own mistakes." Robert said after a long moment, "but learning from another man's mistakes, that's the mark of more than a man. That's the mark of a leader."

Xander was silent in turn, considering Robert's advice. The old man hadn't given any real examples, but it was obvious he was serious. Xander found himself licking his lips, a little nervous, "what happened?"

Again, Robert was quiet for a long moment, and Xander wondered if maybe he wouldn't answer this time. Still, however, the moment ended in the old man began to speak, "I joined the Army boy, but back then it wasn't the same armies you join today. Training consisted of being shown what end of the rifle bullet came out of, assuming you were lucky enough to get a rifle."

As Robert told his story, Xander listened at first a little confused, trying to work out exactly when Robert had been born. After a short while, however, the confusion faded as he just began to absorb the words.

"Our family was well-to-do, so I had a rifle of my own when I joined. But I come from a magic home, we didn't hunt for our own food, so my shiny new rifle had never seen use." Robert said, looking a little lost in his memories, "because of my family's position, I was groomed for leadership role. That's not how we do things today, but then it was the natural order of things. My first squad, my first assignment, we were sent out to deal with the minor Indian uprising."

Robert shook his head, his face tinged with memory, "we were told it was a walk in the park. The superiority of our civilized military assured our victory."

By this point Xander was spell bound, listening intently.

"We lost half the squad in the first few seconds of the ambush, most of the rest the next three minutes." Robert said stonily, "I almost died because I couldn't move fast enough, couldn't think fast enough, and couldn't keep a steady hand when I needed it. That was when I learned my lesson, paid my price. Family position, magic, civilized culture... these are wonderful things, but in the real world, where the blood splatters the ground... they mean a whole lot less than we'd like to."

With that said, Robert rose from his chair and tottered a little unsteadily back into the house. Behind him Xander sat silently, questions whirling in his mind. He heard a sound behind him, and turned to see Sam standing there.

"How...," Xander hesitated, "when...?"

"Robert was born in 1807," Sam answered, already knowing the question Xander wanted to ask. "We don't live quite as long as wizards, at least not as a general rule, but we still live a long time."

"But then he'd be almost..." Xander trailed off.

Sam nodded, "he'll see his second Centennial in a few years. The oldest squib I know of."

Xander swallowed, "and you say wizards live longer?"

"On average," Sam answered with a nod.

"Wow."

Sam chuckled, patting Xander on the shoulder as he walked past, heading into the house. "Why don't you run through the katas I showed you kid, I need to speak with Robert for a few minutes."

Xander nodded dumbly, shaking himself from his stupor, and slowly got down to work.

Inside the home, Sam found Robert leaning on a cane staring out at the boy as he worked in the yard.

"Whose story you telling?" Sam asked quietly.

Robert let out a quiet breath, "my older brother's."

Sam nodded, "was a good story."

"I learned from my brother's mistakes," Robert said with finality, "I hope he can do the same."

Sam just nodded again.

There really wasn't much else he could do, or anything he could say. Some lessons you had to learn yourself, and the mark of a man was how well you learned them. That said, however, there were bigger things in the world than being a man. Sam knew, as Robert did, but the ability to learn from the mistakes of others was perhaps one of the most elusive, and valuable, qualities to have.

* * *

By the end of the week, Xander's work out had gotten a little easier. The muscles he'd let go while back at Hogwarts slowly tightened up again, and even showed signs of perhaps not trying to kill him while he slept. He had to admit, he did make sense, or least it seemed it did that being fit would probably benefit him whether he had magic to use or not.

Of course, he supposed that he might see it that way simply because that was what he was told from a young age. A fit mind in a fit body. That was the saying, but it was a saying from a non-magical school.

Still, it made sense, he decided. So until he had evidence to the contrary, Xander decided he was going to stick it out, and deal with his sadist of an uncle. It was something he would have to look up though, if only to determine what value, if any, the whole routine really had.

His personal projects were moving along better than his workouts, thankfully. With Willow's somewhat obsessive help, Xander thought that maybe they might begin to handle on the wand crafting thing.

They had actually tried making one already, with no success. The preparation of the word was apparently one of the most complicated parts, all the book seemed to agree on it. The reference material he picked up in the New Salem library indicated that wand blanks were often aged much as 50 years, which really put a crimp in lot of his ideas.

It was Willow unsurprisingly, who offered him an intriguing alternate path.

* * *

"Are all wands made of wood?" Willow asked, looking up from the book.

Xander nodded, "all modern wands are anyway."

"What about non-modern wands?"

Xander stopped, leaning back from his book, and thought about the question.

"Well," he said slowly, "staves were made from wood, but they often used a crystal focus."

"Crystal?" Willow asked curiously.

Xander nodded, remembering the history book he'd read on the subject. "Actually, there was a time when Crystal foci were pretty trendy."

"What kind of Crystal?"

"Diamonds were the most popular," Xander answered, "I think some other crystals were used as well, but those were very rare."

"Diamonds," Willow mused, falling silent for a moment as she considered it.

Xander recognized the look on her face.

"What is it?" He asked.

"What is what?" Willow blinked, looking up at him.

Xander smiled, leaning forward, "I know that look. You have some kind of idea, and I know you well enough that I want in."

Willow blushed, "well, I don't know if it's an idea... really is just a vague thought."

Xander raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Willow sighed then leaned forward with just a glimmer of a glint in her eye, "it's just that diamonds and would have something in common."

Xander blinked, "they do?"

Willow smirked, nodding happily at Xander's confusion. "They do."

Xander thought about it for a long moment, then shook his head, "I give."

"Carbon."

Xander looked puzzled, rolling it over his head, "carbon?"

Willow nodded, "carbon is the base material of all life on earth."

Xander nodded, "carbon-based life, right? I remember that episode of Star Trek."

Willow rolled her eyes, "really Xander, life is not a television episode."

"Can I help it if everything I really needed to know, I really did learn from TV?" Xander grinned.

Willow stomped her foot, eliciting a crack that echoed in the basement. "That's not funny mister."

"I beg to differ."

Xander smirked as Willow reddened slightly, glaring at him. Her tolerance levels to his nonsense had dropped markedly in his absence, and he was really enjoying the fact that he could get to her more easily than he used to.

Willow took a few breaths however, and calmed down. "As I was saying, diamonds and wood have carbon in common."

Xander thought about it, frowning a little as he puzzled it out, "okay, yeah. Diamonds are pure carbon right? But wood isn't. I don't think, right?"

Willow sighed, but nodded, "no, wood isn't pure carbon. But carbon is the most basic element of all life, including wood, here on earth. And if the diamond works as a foci, then maybe carbon is what's important in a wand."

Xander considered it, "could be. How do we test it?"

Willow thought about it for a moment, then get an expression on her face and Xander had a hard time recognizing. It was an expression, he realized shortly, that would have been more at home on Wednesday Addams' face. And while he became inured to that look on Wednesday's face, seeing it on Willow's sent a spike of fear up his spine.

Lucky for Xander, he wasn't the target of the expression of pure evil. Not this time anyway.

Willow's face morphed back to one of pure innocence as she spoke up, "well, you know daddy bought a new set of golf clubs."


	39. Chapter 39

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Over the next couple weeks Xander and Willow played around with the notes and few details Xander had been able to pick up on the rather nebulous art of wand crafting. As he found out in Europe, there were very few details in the public domain, to the point of it being simply ridiculous. Certainly, the process followed by the three families of wand making was for all practical purposes passed only from father to son.

The lesser art of wand crafting, with all its foibles, was only somewhat more open. The basic process was available to those who wished to research it, however by all accounts the devil was in the details.

In their pursuit of the ideal, however, Xander had to admit to being a little scared of how obsessively Willow was pursuing her goal. Stealing her dad golf clubs, well that showed a good deal more nerve than he really gave her credit for.

In the end, though, Xander figured Willow was just really pissed off over not being able to go to a magic school.

That said, even she wasn't willing to do more than wreck one of her father's clubs. So that was how the two of them wound up crouched over an expensive graphite club, hacksaw in hand. With the club properly dissected, their having gained two pieces about long enough to use for a wand, the duo began to puzzle out how they were going to put it all together.

The core would be easy enough, since Xander been planning this for several months. While still at Hogwarts Xander had managed to finagle several unicorn hairs from the groundskeeper, Hagrid. He figured that those would make an excellent start for a new wand crafting project.

As the preparations for this little project continued, however, a new force made her way to Xander's summer.

The Floo specialists from the California County Bureau of the American ministry arrived and put Xander's special order into effect, opening the Harris home Floo to full transport, as well as communications, capacity. With that done, two of the girls in Xander's life were now on a collision course to meet.

* * *

Wednesday tucked in to a roll as the burst of green fire flared in the fireplace, coming back to her feet about halfway into the living room. The dark haired girl glanced around briefly, idly dusting the Floo powder from her close as she did.

"Wednesday!" Xander grinned, striding forward and gave his friend a brief hug.

She spared him a brief glare in return, then grudgingly returned the embrace.

"Man, it's good to see you!" Xander said, stepping back and gesturing around. "Welcome to California, home of Hollywood, giant redwoods, rainbow pride, and the hellmouth."

"Yes..." Wednesday said slowly, as she turned around. "I can feel it."

Xander carefully had a smirk, thinking about how it was strange those things you could get used to if you really had to. From anyone else that comment would have sent shivers up the spine, but from Wednesday Addams it really was just par for the course.

"It's like a cold dark presence," she said, musing mostly to herself. "A chilled blanket, to keep the summer warmth away. Delightful."

And there went the shivers.

This time Xander had to muffle a snicker. Wednesday was of course, purely Wednesday.

"Come on downstairs," Xander said with a grin. "There's someone I want you to meet."

The Addams scion merely inclined her head slightly, and then followed Xander without comment.

* * *

Willow was pouring over one of the wand crafting books, trying to absorb the sections on theory, when Xander and Wednesday walked downstairs. Xander smiled when Willow characteristically didn't even bother to look up, just waiting in his general direction as she mumbled, "hey Xander."

Wednesday, for her part, merely raised a single eyebrow as she took in the near disaster zone of books and papers that surrounded the redhead. "It would appear, that I have located the reason for you being so comfortable in the presence of Hermione."

Willow jerked up at the sound of the other girl's voice, twisting around in a manner that really couldn't be recommend, and wound up falling off the chair and flat on her butt.

"Ow!"

"Just as jumpy," Wednesday noted, "though perhaps a little more clumsy."

Willow pushed the hair out of her face, staring up at Xander and Wednesday with wide eyes, "hey! I'm not clumsy ..."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow.

Willow flushed red, looking around at the mess she had made when she fell, and sighed. "Well, not normally."

Xander snickered.

"It's not funny!"

Xander started to laugh, slumping against the wall as he managed to nod and get a few words in between breaths, "yes it is."

Willow glared at him, Wednesday merely stared, and Xander... well Xander just started to laugh harder. Finally, after several minutes and several hundred gales of laughter, that even Xander would have to eventually admit were over the top, he calmed down.

"Wednesday," Xander wheezed out as he tried to catch his breath, "meet Willow. Willow, meet Wednesday."

Willow, who was still flushed bright red, nodded towards the dark haired girl. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Wednesday's dry, acerbic drawl, left Willow flustered and uncertain as to whether the other girl meant what she said or was merely humoring Xander. The moment of uncertainty caused her innate shyness to kick in, and she ducked her head turning quickly away from the darker girl, mumbling some words about getting back to her studies.

Wednesday glanced at Xander, raising her expressive eyebrow again, and Xander shrugged in return. The Addams scion sighed silently, and then the two of them walked to the table, split apart by mutual consent, and took seats on either side of Willow.

"So," Wednesday said her monotone voice, "what are we working on today?"

"Wand crafting."

Wednesday glanced over at Xander, unsurprised. Xander's interest in wands had been ongoing, so there was certainly nothing new here. She glanced across the materials on the table, taking them in silently as she also took the moment to formulate her thoughts. There were two items that she took to be wand blanks resting in the center of the table, both of them identical, and both of them looking surprisingly like her own ebony wand.

She reached out, taking one, and realized instantly that really it was nothing like her own.

"This isn't wood." She said as she examined the rod in her hand, "was this from a golf club?"

Willow blushed deeper red, hiding her face behind a curtain of her hair as Xander grinned wide enough to split his face. Wednesday was far from stupid, she could've put the whole story together with a lot less evidence.

"So, just to be clear, you cut up what looks like a brand-new golf club," she drawled dryly, "which I'm guessing, from the look on your faces, you didn't exactly have permission to do. Am I right?"

Xander snickered as Willow just nodded mutely, practically pressing her face into the desk.

"Impressive."

Willow bolted up straight, eyes wide as she stared in surprise at the other girl. "What?"

Wednesday however wasn't someone to repeat herself, so she merely examined the material more closely. "What is your justification for this material?"

Willow swallowed, "well we, I mean Xander in me... that is, Xander and I, we were looking for ways to build a wand when we realized, well actually Xander realized that the wood usually had to be prepared, sometimes seasoned as much as 50 years. Since we didn't really have that much time, I mean I sort of want a wand before I'm 65, so we looked for alternatives. Did you know they used to use diamonds as foci? That's cool, but a bit expensive, I mean I have some money but not like that..."

Wednesday stared over at Xander, her expression practically unreadable, except for the fact that he'd spent two years learning what her expressions meant. At the moment she was caught in the cross roads between surprise and amusement.

Oblivious to the communication between the other two, Willow continued on, "anyway I thought that since diamonds are carbon, and that's the only thing that they have in common with wood, maybe another form of carbon would work as well."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, examining the former golf club in her hand. "A graphite club? Interesting. Intriguing even."

She set the rod back down on the table, next to its twin, then nodded to the books and papers, "what have you found?"

* * *

With Wednesday coming through the Floo every couple days to help out, they quickly moved the project along from theory to the more practical aspects of testing. Some things of course, were easier theorized than accomplished.

For example, embedding the unicorn hair into the shaft was both simple and complicated at the same time. Simple because the shaft was hollow, and more than thick enough to accommodate the hair. Complicated because the shaft was hollow, and too thick to hold the hair firmly in place.

Xander suggestion of superglue was quickly shot down, much to his disappointment.

"What about a liquid core," Wednesday suggested.

Xander frowned, thinking about it, "the only liquid that would work is..."

"Blood."

Willow squeaked, eyes going wide, "b... blood?"

Wednesday nodded silently.

Xander scowled and thought about it, "aren't blood cores illegal? I think I read about that in here somewhere."

Wednesday shrugged, "so?"

Willow squeaked again.

Xander thought about it, then shrugged as well, "before we even think about that, I think we should research blood cores. In the meantime, what if we filed down some of the graphite and filled core with powder?"

Willow nodded enthusiastically, happy to be away from the topic of blood. "That sounds like a good idea."

Wednesday sighed, rolling her eyes, "if we must, then we must."

Xander hid a grin as Willow stared wide-eyed at the dark haired and just plain dark Addams scion.

"Excellent," Xander said, clasping his hands together. "We have a plan of action then. Let's do this."

The two very dissimilar girls nodded in agreement as they began to gather the materials needed for their first hands-on project of the summer.


	40. Chapter 40

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

By the middle of summer, now with a months' worth of goof off days under their belt, Xander, Willow, and Jessie, were finding themselves a little tired of theme parks and the like. Xander had been disappointed to learn that Willow and Jessie had begun drifting apart, as Willow spent more of her time studying and Jessie began to hang around Jonathan and his friends.

Unfortunately there didn't seem to be much that he could do about that, so Xander focused as much he could own spending time with both his friends while he was home. That meant study time and projects with Willow, but for Jessie a different tack was needed.

Thus while his afternoons were spent in pursuit of academia, his evenings, more often than not, were ironically spent in pursuit of evil wizards, dragons, and monsters of a mythical menagerie.

* * *

"Yes! A natural 20!"

Jessie's crowing echoed through the room as he pumped his arms in the air.

The game had progressed, with the players delving deeper and deeper into the dungeons designed by Warren, the groups' game master. From Xander's point of view, it was actually rather comical to the point where he was having trouble hiding snickers when they were attacked by giant rats, spiders, and the like.

Having gone down into actual dungeons, and faced monsters a good deal more dangerous, there was a surreal aspect to the whole thing.

Still, as Jessie's fireball torched their enemies Xander leaned back and thought about the difference between the magic in the books, and the magic in his life. The fireball spell was one example, in school books the closest he'd come to was the incendio. That spell, however, operated in a different fashion. For one thing it didn't waste energy blazing across the intervening space between the caster and the target, rather it lit the target on fire directly.

Xander did suspect however, that there were plenty of spells in the wizarding world just as wasteful, and just a spectacular.

When the session that ended Xander hung around with the others and read through some of the sourcebooks.

"How much these cost?" He asked glancing over at Jonathan.

"Some of them are pricey," Jonathan admitted.

"Why?" Warren asked with a sly smile, "hooked?"

Xander shrugged, "could be. It's interesting reading at least."

Jonathan nodded enthusiastically, "I love reading through them for fun."

"How many of them are about magic and spells and stuff?" Xander asked.

"For Dungeons & Dragons?" Jonathan asked in return.

Xander thought about it for a moment then just shrugged, "or any game."

"Tons."

Xander raised an eyebrow, looking over curiously, "yeah?"

The whole group nodded furiously.

"Oh yeah," Jonathan spoke up first, "just in DND there has to be more than a dozen."

Warren, who had worn the same scowl almost the entire time Xander known them, rolled his eyes as he spoke up. "What are you just asking the magic? There's lots of cool stuff in these books."

Xander shrugged again, "just like magic I guess."

"For really cool magic," Warren suggested after a moment, "checkout Shadowrun."

"Oh yeah, what's in that?"

"Technomancy."

Xander leaned forward, his expression interested, "sounds cool."

That seemed to be the key phrase that set the whole group off, then suddenly each of them were throwing him recommendations from their favorite games. Xander wasn't sure that any of that would be useful, but he hadn't lied about them being interesting reading, and if you got any good ideas out of it well then it would be worth the price of the books.

Before too long, however, the discussion deteriorated into it heated debate about the relative merits of one game versus the others. Xander mostly tuned them out at that point, and only peripherally entered the discussion as he spent most of the rest of the evening reading through various magic sourcebooks.

* * *

Of course while Xander considered most of the time spent with any of his friends to be enjoyable, and thus arguably playtime, his time with his uncle was most certainly not.

The workouts this summer were a great deal more strenuous, leaving him in serious aching pain at the end of his days. The early weeks were particularly bad, which forced Xander to vow not to slacken off so much the following year.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the time so much, of course. If he hated it, he simply would not have done it. Even with enjoyment however, it was still damn hard work. By the middle of the summer though, Sam had begun to introduce him to basic sparring, as a lead-in to fulfilling his promise concerning the proper usage of fighting knife.

What that really meant, however, was that in addition to aches and pains Xander now had black and blue bruises to show off to the world.

* * *

What really kept them coming back however, were the discussions with Robert, and the stories he related.

The discussion of the day had begun while Xander was wrapping up his cooldown routine, and Sam was heading for a cold beer. What had begun with Robert pulling out some of the flaws in Xander's defense tactics and quickly moved on to a discussion of magical versus mundane defenses.

"Wards!" Robert scoffed, shaking his head. "Some of the most worthless things around."

Xander frowned, "people seem to trust them?"

Robert laughed, "that's what makes them worthless."

Seeing that Xander was still confused, Robert went on. "Wards are flighty things, you see. They work good enough within their limitations, but most people use them don't bother to learn about them. Your school, Hogwarts right? I expect you've heard of the fidelius, given how famous it is over there now?"

Xander nodded, the fidelius was indeed the most famous defense Ward he knew about.

"That's a funny one," Robert said with a crooked smile. "It can hide a location from any searcher, so perfectly that no magic, and no technology so far, has ever been able to penetrate it. Right?"

"I guess so."

"Bullshit."

Xander flinched slightly at the flat tone Robert delivered the curse in.

"How many folk you think can cast that spell?"

Xander shrugged, "dunno."

Robert chuckled dryly, "on the whole planet, only one man. Leastwise, only one man who admit to it. That's what makes that spell so strong, it's never really been tested. At least not in recorded history."

Xander blinked, thinking he heard something in Robert's tone. "Recorded history?"

"Yes boy. That one was a lost spell, until the Evans girl managed to piece it back together from old artifacts. At least that's the public story, or the semipublic story I suppose."

Xander perked up, eyes widening. "Evans girl?"

Robert nodded, "the one who married Potter, the mother of the boy-who-lived. The point is, that Ward is only secure through obscurity. The more common a ward is, the less secure it is. Do some research, kid, you'll find the most powerful wards of the world are all ancient magic. They're all based on formulas that no one remembers, and no one could possibly recast today. Your school, the major banking centers of Europe, various ministries, they're all the same. They are ancient wards that are only maintained today, never cast."

Xander thought about that for a moment, then a slow realization came to him. "It's not just wards, this is?"

Robert smiled slowly, "what do you think?"

"I think..." Xander said slowly, "I think the magical world is buried in secrets. Wand makers don't seem to ever tell anyone how to do the job. Now you say this about wards, what about other areas?"

"Good, boy. Very good." Robert said with a smile, "that's exactly the point. Secrets are powerful, magical secrets doubly so. A ward is like a lock, the problem is the key to the lock is the one thing that every wizard on the planet carries."

"A wand." Xander said, his eyes opening wide.

"Bang on." Robert said with a grin, "so what good is a lock if everyone holds the key? Of course in this case the locks are really combination based, so that's where obscurity comes in. Never use a ward out of a book if you really intend to protect something, you may as well just hand it over to whoever wants it instead."

It made sense, Xander had to admit, and it matched with the things she was seeing when he explored or researched the wizarding world. Secrets, hidden formulas, ancient magic, they were everywhere. Why were the best protected places always protected by long forgotten words that were, today, merely recharged by their caretakers?

"Those old magics, they had come from somewhere..." Xander said softly.

Robert nodded in agreement, "oh yes. Oh yes, they certainly came from somewhere. There was this time, during the war, when I let my cavalry unit over a ridge. We just crested it when we all felt a tingling down our spines. Most of my boys, they were non-magical, didn't know what it was. I knew, I felt it before, just not that strong. It was a chain collapse of multiple ward fields, the most powerful I've ever felt. My men, our horses, they all panicked. Standard my unit, but I was transfixed. Ahead of me, there were these two mountains side by side, and as I watched they jumped apart."

Robert fixed Xander with a piercing stare, "you don't know what it's like to see two huge mountains actually jumped apart. I found myself staring into a fertile valley that wasn't there a minute earlier. This valley, held hundreds of hectares of ground, probably a good chunk of the state it was in. Until that day, however, it never existed on the map. Think on that a moment, and not how many other slabs of land have been parceled up and forgotten by the wizarding world."

Xander swallowed as he thought about it and wondered who or what cultures have developed spells like the fidelius. What if that was a common ward once in the distant past? How much of the earth was hidden from men, from wizards, from them all?

"Staggering thought, isn't it?" Robert asked with a knowing smile. "I've thought a lot about it myself, since that day. It's humbling to realize that it's just possible that the world we live in is only a small fraction of the world we should have inherited."

* * *

Conversations with Robert always left Xander with something to ponder. The old man, approaching his second Centennial, had a way with words and the way with people. He also had a way of planting seeds with his words, then it is invariably took root and began to push their way through Xander's thinking.

Secrets.

It was the opposite of how he been brought up to think, Xander realized. You learned from shared information, you built on what other people know, that was how things were done. Airplanes, television, computers. These things couldn't exist on their own.

People stood upon the shoulders of giants to accomplish these things.

Was it really possible that the magical world was so different?

He didn't know.

But Xander knew that he would have to find out.


	41. Chapter 41

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

As summer peaked and began the inevitable march towards fall, Willow, Wednesday, and Xander finished their first test wand.

"Graphite wand blank, unicorn tail hair core, first test." Xander said as Willow scribbled down the words.

He held the wand in his normal fashion and just flicked it through the air with a casual motion. His breath caught, and Willow gasped, as a moderate shower of sparks erupted.

"It works!" Willow said gleefully.

Wednesday held up a hand, "proceed with the test."

Xander nodded, shifting his grip on the wand. He turned towards the far wall, a solid cement buttress that was part of the house's foundation, and cast his first spell.

"Stupefy!"

The result, an uninspired pink pulse of energy hit the far wall a moment later and vanished with a pop.

"Well, that was disappointing." Xander said, sighing.

Willow frowned, "it wasn't supposed to do that?"

Wednesday rose, and walked over beside Xander, her own wand in hand. "Stupefy!"

A glaring red blast of energy tore across the room and slammed into the wall before bursting into a multicolor display.

"That, is what it should do."

"Wow."

"Yeah," Xander said in agreement, "we're missing something."

The three were silent for a moment, until Willow spoke up, "well, what about the other spells? Maybe they'll be different?"

Xander shrugged, "I don't see why, but let's try em."

He turned to a book on a table, and with a classic swish and flick intoned the words, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

He was surprised when the book was steadily into the air, showing no real signs of instability.

"Intriguing." Wednesday said calmly. "Try the shield charm."

Xander let the book down, nodding in agreement, and turned away from the table again. "Protego!"

The shield popped into existence, showing some of the soap bubble lines that indicated weakness and instability, but it was almost a strong as Xander could currently manage with his own wand.

"So... Is that good?" Willow asked uncertainly.

"It seems to be better for charms, then curses." Xander said thoughtfully.

Wednesday nodded in agreement, "may I?"

Xander shrugged and dropped the graphite wand into her interest hand. She accepted it and gracefully swished it through the air as a test. Her reward was a shower of sparks very similar to the one Xander had created.

"Stupefy! Wingardium Leviosa! Protego!"

The three spells as tried to Wednesday, reacted fairly close to how they had for Xander. When she was done, Wednesday was the one on the table and calmly took her seat.

"Well I believe further testing is required, it would appear to be a fairly functional wand for charms at least."

Xander frowned, "yeah, but why? Do you think it's the graphite, the core, or something we did?"

Wednesday and Willow ponder the question, until finally Willow spoke up.

"There's really only one way to find out."

Wednesday nodded in agreement, "try another wand."

"Right." Willow agreed, "we try again, then we change one variable. Only one."

"So we to find wood for a new wand blank, new material for the core, we change our construction method?" Xander asked.

Willow nodded, "that's right. We should try a new core, at least I think so. A different blank will actually introduce multiple variables, since the wood isn't as pure as graphite. Also, our construction method has too many steps to change in a controlled manner for testing."

Xander frowned, "okay, I can see that. The trouble is, I don't have any Dragon heartstrings, and I sure as hell don't have any Phoenix feathers."

There was a long moment of silence, until Wednesday spoke softly.

"But we do have basilisk materials."

After a moment, Xander let out a long low whistle.

"Never heard of that in a wand, which just makes me more interested to see if it will work." He grinned.

* * *

Of course, working with basilisk quickly turned out to be easier said than done. One of the few details of wand crafting that Xander's research had been able to turn up was that wand cores were normally taken from as close to the center of a creatures magic is possible.

For dragons, their magical core with their hearts. The feathers of the Phoenix held some of the most potent magical energy in the known wizarding world. Unicorn tail hairs were an exception to the rule, but only because taking materials from any closer to the unicorn center of magic would result in the death of the creature, something no sane person would risk being responsible for.

What that meant for this project was twofold. First, they didn't know for certain what the magical center of a basilisk was. For obvious reasons, there had been little research on the subject in the past. They could make some educated guesses, which revolved mostly around the giant snake's eyes and fangs, which were the creatures' most potent weapons.

Those guesses led directly into their second problem. Namely, the fact that those things the trio believed were most potent, were also those things that they had the least of them were loath to waste.

Finally they decided to start with something more common, with the full knowledge that it was almost certainly less potent.

* * *

"Graphite wand blank, basilisk muscle sinew core, first test."

Xander again turned to the wall, and casually swept the wand in front of them. A burst of green and red sparks showered out of the end of the dark wand, showing that it was distinctly capable of channeling magic.

That done, Xander shifted his grip and moved on to the first spell.

"Stupefy!"

A deep red bolt flew across the room been splattered into the cement foundation on the other side.

"Wingardium Leviosa. Protego."

Both of the following two spells didn't cast properly, but were obviously weak. The Wingardium was shaky and unsteady, forcing Xander to apply unusual focus to maintain the levitation of the book. And the Protego, was the worst he had cast in almost a year.

When he was done, Xander place the wand on the table beside their other completed model and carefully wrapped a circle of green tape around the end. The green wrapped basilisk wand rested beside the blue wrapped unicorn wand as the trio consider the results of the test.

"I think we need to test them against our regular wands with spells we can easily quantify," Wednesday said simply.

Willow nodded in agreement.

"Okay, we'll have to write up a list of spells to use then." Xander said, "but for now it's looking like we have an answer."

"I think so too," Willow said in agreement, however she held up a cautionary hand, "but it's not proven yet."

"True."

Xander nodded, agreeing with the other two. "Agreed. For now though, unicorn hair seems better for charms, and basilisk muscle sinew appears to be better for curses."

The other two merely nodded in agreement.

"There's nothing about that in the books though," Willow complained.

"Wizards like their secrets." Xander said thoughtfully, his face twisted into a puzzled frown. "Still, it wasn't that difficult to test. There should be some mention of it, right?"

"It was impossible to test." Wednesday corrected, "until Willow here suggested the use of graphite. Any wooden blank would require several years of seasoning, at least, it would likely introduce several unknown and unknowable variables."

Willow nodded, "I think she's right. Graphite is pure, it's just carbon. We know now that carbon will channel magic, but wood isn't pure. Of course, that may be why our wands don't react as well to you as your own."

Wednesday fixed her with a stare, "explain."

"What I mean is that the impurities in wood may be beneficial to wand crafting." Willow said slowly, "like how little bit of carbon introduced during forging turns iron into steel."

"You're saying that these graphite wands," Xander said with a grimace, "may never match up to proper wooden ones?"

Willow nodded glumly, "right now it's clear that even in their areas of strength, the graphite wands aren't as good as your matched wooden ones. In other areas, their weaker ones, they're far inferior."

Xander sighed, disappointed, but he had to admit that Willow was right.

"It's not a failure, Xander." Willow said quickly, "we made real wands! They work, that's incredible, right?"

"She's right, Xander." Wednesday said calmly. "We have something new here, it may lead nowhere, but it may just lead some were very interesting indeed. To find out we have to walk the path."

Xander nodded, "I know. I guess I was just hoping for a miracle."

"Miracles are for the weak and the desperate."

Xander had to smile at the cold, bleak tone that Wednesday delivered her statement in. Still, the word had their effect, and he nodded in agreement.

"Alright, ideas then. Where do we go from here? Just brainstorm, will organize the ideas later."

For the rest of the afternoon that was what they did, just throwing out various ideas and jotting down for later organization. The three of them knew that there was a mountain of work remaining to do if they wanted to even bring this idea into the realm of practicality. However, for the moment it wasn't labor, it wasn't work, it was quite simply fun.


	42. Chapter 42

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander's summer had turned into a hectic one, and he often found himself almost literally running from one activity to the next. Still, by the end of July, Xander realized that for all the running around he'd been doing there were some things on his list that he'd forgotten.

That led to a shopping excursion in Los Angeles' magical district with Willow and Sam.

Three Angels block was a section of LA cut directly out of the city by several advanced Ward schemes that were powered by the geological Ley lines that existed all up and down the West Coast. The trio took Sam's 1952 Chevy from Sunnydale and arrived in LA a few hours later.

To access three Angels they drove up to a barricaded alley were Sam stopped the car and leaned out the window.

"Do you see that?" Willow asked, staring ahead of them.

Xander nodded, "yeah."

Willow twisted around the car, looking behind them, "why can't anybody else see that?"

Xander grinned, "magical sensitivity wards. In Europe they call them Muggle wards, they're designed to hide the area from people who don't have enough magic in them to see through them."

Willow's eyes widened, "oh wow."

"If you like that," Sam grinned as he as he straightened back up, "you're gonna love this."

Willow squealed at Sam put the gas petal down in the old classic surged forward directly into the barricade.

"Oh my God! We're going to -"

Her squeals were cut off as the car effortlessly penetrated the barricade, actually seeming to be swallowed up as they drove on through. They broke out into three Angels a moment later, bright sunlight from above beating down on them at Sam guided the old Chevy through the immense park they found themselves in.

"Shopping district is over that way," Sam said nodding in the direction he was turning.

"Wha – but how?" Willow stared around in shock, "but we were in LA!"

"Still are little lady," Sam grinned. "Three Angels is a magically expanded area. It started as a single city block back around 1850, but as the city boomed the magical population grew as well. The Ley lines in the area offer a lot more power than most places get, so they were able to engineer some pretty impressive wards and magical effects."

Even Xander, who had seen Diagon alley in London was awed by what he was seeing here.

"There are only three cities in the states within a significant magical population," Sam explained, "New York, San Francisco, and LA. Most of the rest of the Americas are spread out pretty widely, for a lot of reasons. LA and New York are immigrant towns, while San Francisco tends to draw in all sorts because the city itself was built on multiple Ley line nexus'. You kids will have to visit San Fran sometime, I'm a squib and I can feel the air tingle up there."

As Sam spoke they were approaching a congregation of people and buildings that looked like the shopping district he mentioned. The two kids were surprised to note that Sam's car wasn't even remotely out of place. In fact, neither of them saw a vehicle that seemed newer than the late 60s. When they brought it up, Sam just laughed.

"No electronics." He said by way of reply, "any magically dense area will blow any electronics you bring into it. Don't know why, just the way things are."

Willow frowned, the idea of losing your computer just by driving through a magical area not sitting well with her. "No one's done the research to find out why?"

Sam laughed again, "lots of people done research, no one got any answers. There is always some bright young genius, usually from a non-magical family, crusading to find the answer but it's apparently hiding pretty well."

Xander, unsurprised by the response, just shrugged. Willow, however, seem to take it as a personal insult, or challenge. Xander just grinned as she ranted under her breath, knowing that their little research group had just picked up another project.

Before she could get much steam up family pulled the car over to a stop in a nicely shaded parking lot near the shopping district.

"Alright come on kids," the former Navy seal said as they climbed out of the vehicle. "You have your lists?"

The duo nodded, so Sam led the way to the shops.

Willow wanted a wand more than anything, unfortunately they had found that since she wasn't on the list of approved magical school she couldn't legally buy one. Xander had been racking his brains, looking for an option, but had yet to find one. To date, the best he'd found, was to get Willow a tutor as soon as possible.

Without her parents' consent and knowledge, however, the earliest easy time would be when she turned 18.

He hoped that they'd find another option, but in the meantime the redhead had laid claim to the graphite wands they had crafted, saying that they were better than nothing. Xander didn't mind, of course, though it did mean that he needed more graphite blanks to continue experimenting.

He was distracted from his reverie by Willow's squeal as the redhead spotted the bookstore.

Sam chuckled to himself as his nephew was dragged bodily but a girl a fraction of his weight, and decided to wait for them at the Starbucks across the road.

* * *

Xander found himself at the center of a whirlwind as Willow dragged him from stack to stack, all but drooling over the wealth of information she found herself surrounded by. The redhead quickly tapped out her own budget, picking up copies of the standard book of spells grade 3, and other books recommended in Xander's supply list. Xander had already handed over his books from first and second year, along with many of his notes since most of what felt was valuable was stored in the coven grimoire, or his research notebooks.

Even so, Willow ran out of money long before she ran out of books.

Xander's budget, was somewhat larger however. His new bank account, while far from inexhaustible, was more than sufficient to the task of buying all but the most rare and expensive research tomes. So when Willow's list was done, the two of them turned their focus to books that might have answers, or even leads, for the projects they were working on together.

So it was that by the time they were finished Xander was quite certain his new library would rank quite respectably, even in the eyes of the likes of Hermione and Wednesday.

From the bookstore the two made their way across the promenade, waving to Sam when they saw him outside the Starbucks, chatting up a woman they didn't recognize.

"I can't believe they have a Starbucks." Willow said shaking her head.

Xander shrugged, "Money is money. I'm surprised there isn't a McDonald's."

Willow made a horrified face, shaking her head, "at least there are some standards here."

Xander chuckled, "I wouldn't say that until I looked around a little bit more, if I were you. We did just get here, there could be a fast food strip right around the corner."

Willow groaned, but was quickly distracted by the sights through the shops front windows. There were, of course, brooms and Quidditch equipment, cauldron and potions ingredients, and all the things Xander come to expect after seeing Diagon alley. There were also the oddities and unidentifiable objects that he had also come to expect after seeing Diagon alley. These were all mixed in with a smattering of more common non-magical items the two of them were far more familiar with.

Xander for his part, quickly located a letter and hide working shop and made his way in that direction.

"Why are we going in here?" Willow asked, puzzled.

"I made a promise." Xander said as they walked in.

"May I help you?" A man asked from behind the counter, as he laid down an awl in strip of leather.

"Yeah, you guys make boots?" Xander asked with a halfway smirk.

* * *

After Xander made his order, the rest of the day progressed fairly quickly and without incident. The trio returned to Sunnydale that evening with bags of shrunken goods fueling the boisterous good moods of the two children.

"That was so cool!" Willow gushed.

Xander nodded, "definitely awesome. I never realized there was such a large magical community this close."

"Nature of the beast," Sam replied as they walked into Xander's house.

"What's the nature of the beast?" Anthony Harris asked from the couch as they approached.

Sam dropped and the couch beside his brother, snagging an unopened beer right out of anything hands. "Secrecy and magic."

"Hey!" Tony growled, grabbing the beer back. "Get your own, you moocher!"

Sam grumbled, starting to get up off the couch, but was stopped when Willow jumped up.

"I'll get it for you," she said in a rush as she ran for the kitchen.

Sam settled back down smirking at his brother, "I could get used to this."

Anthony just rolled his eyes, "so why the talk about secrecy and magic?"

"I was just saying that I was surprised that there was such a large magical community so close to us."

Tony nodded, twisting the off his beer and taking a drink, "yeah, three Angels. Been a while since I've been there, would have liked to join you today if I didn't have to work."

Xander shrugged, smiled, "it's alright dad, we just did some shopping anyway."

Sam nodded, "spent most of the afternoon drinking coffee."

Tony shrugged, "yeah I guess. As for secrecy, three Angels has to hide from 12 million people right on the doorstep. Not too hard to imagine why we never hear of it here in Sunnydale."

Xander nodded, knowing that it made sense. He'd only known about the magical world going on three years now, and most of his experience in it was halfway around the world. It was plainly obvious that there was a lot to see, much closer to home.

"You get all your shopping done, son?"

Xander looked up, shaking from his thoughts, then nodded after a moment. "Unless they change the books on us again this year, but no big deal if they do. I'll be able to pick up what I need in Diagon."

Tony grunted, "go back to Hogwarts then?"

"I think so," Xander said. "I've got friends there now, and I'm doing pretty well in my studies. No reason to change it now."

Tony nodded reluctantly, "just don't like the stories coming out of that place."

"What stories?" Sam asked as Willow returned with his beer.

"Petrification of students, and the boy here being involved in some fight with a basilisk." Tony responded.

Xander grimaced, "they told you about that?"

"Damn right they did." Tony said crossly, "something you should have done when you got home."

"Wasn't a big deal." Xander shrugged, "it's not like I was a target anyway."

Sam leaned forward, "target? Would you mean target?"

"Professor from Salem seemed to think that they have a terrorist problem over there." Tony answered, "probably the same group from 15 years ago."

Sam settled back, closing his eyes as he thought back that far. "Death eaters then. They've been quiet since their Dark Lord got himself roasted by a baby, what's bringing them out now?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "you remember the baby's name?"

Sam snorted, "hard not to. Every wizard on the planet knows his name, so if you've talk to one of them in the last 13 years, you've heard it. Potter. Harry Potter."

Xander nodded, "you want to guess who's in my year?"

"Jesus." Sam cursed, "you mean to tell me those dipshits have been trying to a 13-year-old?"

"And failing miserably." Xander responded with a grin. "Since he was 11."

"Fuck."


	43. Chapter 43

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Dude!"

Xander half turned, looking over his shoulder to see Jessie approaching with Jonathan and Warren in tow. He grinned, waving to the trio as they approached, "hey guys! Right on time."

The trio grinned and nodded to Xander as he turned with them and the group headed into Sunnydale's games and comics shop. Xander grinned as he looked around, nodding to the owner.

"Xan!" Michael Smith greeted him with a smile, "Haven't seen you in ages."

"Boarding school, same as last year." Xander replied, pausing to lean on the counter and chat with the man who had pretty much singlehandedly supplied him and Jessie with years' worth of comics.

"Doing well, I hope?"

"Not bad," Xander said, "I'm not going to take honor spots, but I'm doing pretty good according to some people."

"Good, good. Here for the comics you've missed?" Smith asked, grinning.

"Actually, these delinquents are trying to get me hooked on gaming now." Xander said, grinning back.

"Oh, excellent, those cost MUCH more than comics."

Xander laughed, but nodded, "Yeah, well I guess I better see what they're about then, huh?"

"You have any questions, just ask, I'm here all day."

"And most nights, as I recall." Melinda Smith, Michael's wife said as she walked over. "Hello, Xander."

"Hey, Mel." Xander nodded.

"Gaming now, is it?" She asked with a smirk.

"Hey, you told us that it was our duty to sucker... er, invite our friends into the fold," Jessie spoke up.

Mel rolled her eyes, "Subtle you ain't, McNally. Ok, what game are you interested in, Xan?"

"I want all of them," Xander smirked.

"What?" Mel blinked, noting with surprise that the others didn't seemed phased.

"Well, I want details on all the magic systems, spells, stuff like that." Xander amended. "So any books on magic, at least, plus the core rules I guess."

"Whoa. That's going to set you back a little."

"That's ok, for this I can afford it." Xander said, knowing that he'd basically sold the idea as 'educational' to his parents, so they weren't going to make a fuss over the money, even though they still had some control over his accounts until he was eighteen.

"Alright..."

* * *

The day was spent picking up core books and magic based sourcebooks for everything from AD&D to Gurps, from necromancy to Technomancy, and everything in between. The hit to his back account didn't quite break the thousand dollar mark, but only because they only stocked the more popular books.

Mel promised to find more uncommon titles, and even said she would check into older occultist titles if he was interested. Xander wasn't sure if those would be of much use compared to the books he could find easily in the Magical quarters, but he agreed anyway.

If nothing else, between Wednesday, Willow, and Hermione he was quite certain that any book he bought would eventually be read on way or the other.

He wasn't buying any of these titles to learn magic, of course, but rather because he thought that maybe he could learn new ways to use magic. There were some cool ideas in the Gurps book on Technomancy, if they could figure out why electronics and magic didn't mix of course.

Besides, it was really pretty fun reading, and more importantly it was something he and Jessie could get together and do to catch up. Xander wasn't sure he liked the way things were going in Sunnydale, from what he could tell Jessie and Willow were drifting apart, and he was worried about where that left his best gal pal. Wills had never been the sort to make friends easily, all through grade school it had really just been him and Jessie, no one else lasted.

Girls and guys alike were put off by her intelligence, Xander knew. So much so that Willow had gotten progressively shier as the years went by, her bubbly nature being buried slowly under more and more self-conscious fears.

Really, he worried about her.

Oh, not in the long run. Xander was pretty certain that Willow would eventually blow past anything the world left in her road, but in the short run she was hurt so easily. He knew she had to be hurting that Jessie was hanging around less, but he also figured that she was hurting because he wasn't around.

That really bothered him, because he didn't see any way around it. School mattered to him suddenly, but even so he'd throw it out for Willow, except that Xander knew she'd skin him alive if she did.

Shy and bubbly was one thing, but Angry Willow was a scary sight to see.

"Xander!"

Xander shook his head, looking up, "Huh?"

"I asked which game you wanted to try tonight?" Jessie asked him again, nodding to the stack of books laid out in front of them.

Xander forced a smile, pushing the thoughts aside for another time. "Let's just stick with your campaign, guys, at least until we read through these more."

* * *

And so the summer moved on, with Xander's time being split between his family and his friends. Sam had a contact that secured Xander an ample supply of graphite rods to play with, and even came up with another suggestion for them to pursue.

The former Seal knew a bit about high tech materials, though how and why Xander didn't know, nor did he press on, and had some suggestions to make on his own.

* * *

"So you're using graphite as blanks for making wands?" Sam asked, drumming his fingers on his chin as he considered what Xander had mentioned, "Interesting. Never heard of that before."

"Well, it was Willow's suggestion really."

Willow blushed, "It was nothing, just obvious I think."

"So obvious no one thought of it yet, at least as far as I know." Sam said with a smile, then looked pensive, "yeah, I think I can get you a supply. There's a company that does contract work for Darpa, supplying stuff like that, I know a guy. Have you thought about Carbon Fiber rods, though? Or Carbon rods?"

Xander looked blank, "Aren't they all carbon?"

Sam chuckled, "Sure, but Graphite is a naturally occurring crystal. You might want to figure out if it's the carbon that matters, or the molecular bond."

Willow's eyes lit up, "Of course!"

"Huh?" Xander shook his head.

"Diamond and Graphite are both allotropes of Carbon, they're not 'just' Carbon, Xander." Willow said in a rush, "We should try both of Sam's suggestions, and anything else we can think of that might work."

"Alright. So where do we get Carbon rods and Carbon Fiber?"

"Carbon rods are used in a lot of things, including nuclear reactors," Sam said pensively, "But they're not restricted, so we can get a hold of those easily. Carbon fiber rods are a bit rarer, but I know a guy at Lockheed. I'll make some calls."

* * *

So they got new materials and continued the experimentation, with Wednesday regularly coming through the Floo to join in. It didn't take long to determine that carbon rods worked fine, but didn't have the flex of graphite, which made them less suitable for charms but quite decent for curses. The common swish and flick motion that formed the basis of most charms movements was enhanced by a little flex in the wand, while curses required a strong steely anchor to properly cast.

Carbon fiber was a mixed bag, though, which puzzled the trio. Some blanks worked exceptionally well, rivaling Xander and Wednesday's matched wands in some areas, depending on the cores, yet others were completely useless and seemed to turn out dud wands as far as any of them could determine.

With continued experiments, though, they were able to start cataloging different results based on materials used.

Unicorn tail hair worked best with Graphite, particularly when they carefully aligned the hair along the length and fixed it in the precise center of the blank. The resulting wand was exceptional for charms work, and quite decent for transfiguration, but very poor indeed for curses.

Basilisk material showed promise when combined with pure Carbon rods, and was frighteningly good for curses, particularly the darker ones in Wednesday's repertoire. Xander suspected that a Carbon wand made with core material from Basilisk venom or powdered basilisk eye would be something terrible to behold, indeed. The material was, however, nearly worthless at charms work, and only moderately decent at some transfiguration spells.

Also, while the Carbon rods were tough, they were also somewhat brittle in the size and lengths used. Plenty of drawbacks when compared to their strengths, such that Xander couldn't see one being practical as it stood.

Still, they carefully documented each wand they made, and began to wonder about other core materials.

They finally had to go back into LA and look up some Wand crafters, just to ask their questions.

Phoenix Feather, they learned, was beyond rare. When Xander asked around in Three Angels, the response was unequivocal, phoenix core wands were generally only made once or twice a generation, and sometimes not at all. They were considered by many to be among the most powerful of wands, however, though it was probably more due to those who wielded them than the wands themselves.

Wendelyn The Weird, an exceptionally powerful witch from Spain, who Xander had learned about in History of Magic, was one. Benjamin Franklin was another, as was Nicholas Flamel. Albus Dumbledore himself was rumored to use a Phoenix core wand, though there was some dispute over than, from what the local Wand crafter had to say. Apparently during his battle with Grindlewald, the Arch Mage had indeed used a Phoenix core wand, the same wand he had used all his life up to that point. Afterwards, however, several historians had noted that he began using a different wand in public.

The most powerful wand, speaking of legends, was of course the fabled Elder wand. Made of Elder wood and Thestral Hair, it was one of the so called Deathly Hallows. Supposedly it made its wielder unbeatable in combat, though it's bloodied history of one dead wielder after another made Xander doubt the stories. It sounded rather Lord of the Rings, to him, with the so called all powerful artifact actually being cursed and not blessed.

Dragon Heartstrings were actually the most common of core materials, since one dragon's heart could supply the material for hundreds of wands. It was this, in fact, that led to Dragons being a protected species by Wizard Kind, since they had been hunted to near extinction by Wizards who wanted to turn their flesh into materials for spells, wands, and other magical artifacts. Even today, Xander learned, Dragon poaching was a serious problem in many parts of the world.

In the end, though, all their questions came back to one simple truth.

Any magical creature could donate material to create a wand core, some wand crafters had even created functional wands with human hairs from witches and wizards. The key was to take the material from as close to a creature's center of magic as possible. In many cases wand crafters had to settle for second best, however. In Unicorns the horn would be the ideal, however only the darkest of dark would craft a wand from that, and the consensus was that such a wand would never suit them. Dragon hearts were more potent, because that was the true center of the Dragon's power, while Phoenix feathers were probably one or two steps removed from the true center of the avians magic, which made the potency of feather core wands even more impressive.

What it came down to, Xander, Willow, and Wednesday decided was experimentation. They would have to acquire material from as many creatures as they could, within ethical bounds, and build wands to see what happened.


	44. Chapter 44

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"I want you to be careful when you go back to Hogwarts, Alexander."

Robert leaned forward seriously, eyeing his young relative.

"Come on, man, it's not that bad."

"Your parents have told me about the Basilisk, child." The old man replied wryly, shaking his head. "That is hardly a safe environment."

"Didn't hurt anyone really," Xander shrugged, "Besides, we got it."

"A miracle, however welcome, does not a stable world make." Robert returned.

Their current discussion had risen from a brief back and forth between the two on Magical beasts, and their dangers. Robert had only middling experience in such matters, most of his life had been spent in the non-magical world, but other than the Addamses, whose opinions on dangerous creatures was suspect, he was the only person Xander could talk to.

Robert had heard all about Hogwarts from Xander's parents, however, and had obviously been looking for an opening.

"When navigating the magical world, remain vigilant Alexander." he said, sounding a little tired. "There are threats there that are utterly inconceivable to the non-magically inclined. Especially if you're involving any of your friends from outside the magical world."

"Why?" Xander asked, puzzled.

"Because you're a Wizard, boy. I'm a Squib. That makes us tough compared to most, a non-magical person would be dead in a very short time if left on their own in a magical environment." Robert countered sharply, "even squibs like myself don't fare well as a general rule. Hell, boy, only a thousand years ago people we would today call Wizards were cowering in mud huts, pretending to the non-magical because it was safer."

That surprised Xander, it was something he hadn't gleaned from his History classes. "Huh?"

"Before wands there were few magically adept who could stand up against even the most mean of magical threats," Robert explained, "with a wand you could be killed by pixies easily enough."

Xander grimaced, remembering the first day of defense class the previous year, and had to concede the point. "Ok, I guess I see that."

"Damn right, and you should. Wands are a force multiplier."

"Ok, you lost me again."

"It's a military term, Alexander." Robert smiled, "It just means something that takes what you have, and multiplies it by a certain factor. Before wands came into common use, for example, humans were often under siege by Goblin rebellions. Even after they came into use the rebellions continued for a time, while Wizards learned to maximize their use. Now, however, Goblins don't stand a chance against Wizards and they know it. Wands are the reason why."

"Really? Why don't they just make their own?"

"Because Wizards have banned non humans from making, owning, or using wands." Robert replied, "plus human wands don't work particularly well for Goblins, and since they lost the wars, the concessions they had to give up include the right for Ministry officials to perform search and seizure on any suspected focus research."

"Huh." Xander replied thoughtfully, mulling that over.

"Don't get me wrong, the Goblins aren't pushovers," Robert went on, "They hold a mastery over warding magics that's beyond anything Wizards have yet produced, and they know more about ritual magic than most wizards alive. All of which makes attacking them a dicey matter, however if they want to come out of their warrens they have to meet Wizards in the open field, and there they would be slaughtered."

"So it's a balance of power, then."

"For now." Robert nodded, "With the balance tipping somewhat in the favor of Wizards at the moment. While a successful assault on Goblin Warrens would be... Pyrrhic to say the least, Wizards hold the threat of siege over their heads. Cut off from outside supply, the Goblins would be forced to surrender, or stage a final battle, within a few months at best. All because of wands."

"Wow." Xander muttered, rolling the term around in his head. "Force multiplier."

"The military says that the Moral is to the Physical as Three is to One." Robert said, "Napoleon said it first, at least in those terms. That's a force multiplier."

"I don't get it."

"Say you're a soldier," Robert said and waited for Xander to nod before going on. "We'll give you a 'value' of one. That's your mathematical impact on the battlefield, alright?"

Again, Xander nodded.

"What Napoleon meant was that a motivated soldier, one who wanted to fight, had a reason to fight... was automatically worth a value of three. The multiplier of morale, three, times the standard value of one. In theory, at least, it meant that one motivated soldier has the impact of three 'normal' soldiers." Robert explained patiently. "Myself, I think I would rank wands as being a factor of ten. A normal wizard without a wand is worth one, that same wizard with a wand, assuming he knows how to use it, is worth ten. Do you follow?"

Xander nodded, "I think so. So, you're saying that a motivated wizard with a wand is worth thirty normal soldiers? Or normal wizards?"

"Pretty much the same thing," Robert smiled, "Magic is a multiplier as well, but so is training. If you really wanted to work out the battlefield math you'd have to take that into account. For example, a soldier is worth one, but advanced training is perhaps a multiplier of five. And, generally, highly trained soldiers are usually motivated."

"So they'd be worth fifteen?" Xander asked.

"As a base value."

"So, magic is worth... how much?"

"Now THAT is a good question," Robert smiled, leaning forward. "I don't think anyone has ever worked it out because there's no standard value of 'M'. We know that some wizards are more powerful than others, which will affect its value, but there's no chart to calculate from. What is the value of a Merlin? A Dumbledore? A Franklin? Are they exceptional because they're powerful? Or are they powerful because they're exceptional?"

He let Xander consider that for a moment before continuing.

"That said, it's safe to say that even moderate magical power and reserves is at least as valuable as advanced training. So, for your average Constable, we can give the value of magic to be around five. That's really the minimum combat level for magical ability, I would say. For a powerful wizard? I don't know. Could be twenty five. Could fifty." Robert said seriously, "The math just isn't available to tell."

"That would mean that a well-trained and powerful wizard would be worth..." Xander blinked, thinking about it.

"Hundreds. Maybe thousands of normal soldiers, assuming the equations balanced." Robert said, "However the math is never the whole story when it comes to human interactions. Those numbers are really based on theoretical averages, what will happen in the long run if you run thousands or millions of battles out to their final conclusion. Individual cases can always surprise you."

"How?"

"Imagine Merlin, today. A supremely powerful wizard, trained to the highest standard imaginable. Give him any value you want," Robert said, "One thousand, ten thousand, a million."

Xander nodded intently.

"Now, on the other side. One soldier. He's motivated, trained, and equipped. Give him a value of maybe 45 for those factors. He's a sniper, that's at least worth 10, so now he's 450. His target, our Merlin, doesn't know he's out there. He will only get one shot, but if he makes it... our little 450 value sniper just eliminated a player worth, at least, twice his value... quite probably more. Does it mean the math was wrong?"

Xander didn't know, he shook his head and shrugged.

"No, it means it was incomplete. There were other factors that we didn't add in, that conspired to increase the value of that one soldier, in that one instance, to an equal or greater level than his target." Robert said seriously. "And that is the danger of the real world. We can't know all the variables, and so things surprise us."

Xander swallowed, but nodded in understanding.

"And that is why I'm telling you to be careful in Hogwarts, boy. You may think it's not that bad, but I'm telling you now, you don't know all the variables in the game that's being played around you." Robert said suddenly, sternly. "And make no mistake, someone is playing a game there. Probably several someones, and you don't want to be drawn into it blindly."

Xander nodded again, "I'll be careful."

Robert forced a smile. "Good. Now go on, get out of here, but think on what I've told you."

"I will, Sir. Thank you."

The old man watched his young relative leave and thought about some of what he was hearing from the other side of the Atlantic. There was more than one game being played over there, he suspected, with more than a few players. He hoped Alexander didn't get drawn in, because he was too young to see the game for what it was, and those types of players were rough on their pawns.

There was now family pressure to keep him in Hogwarts, however, something Tony and Jessica had no clue how to fight. The boy was getting close to some heavy duty up and comers over there, and the family wanted it that way.


	45. Chapter 45

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander didn't know what to think about everything he was being told now, it seemed a little messed up.

"That's totally messed up!" Willow responded when he told her, pulling a laugh from his throat.

"I think I got that much, Wills."

"I mean, why send you back there if they're so worried?"

Xander was wondering that himself, he knew that he parents weren't happy about it, and now Robert was giving him advice that basically amounted to 'watch your back, someone has a knife'. He was thirteen for crying out loud, what the hell was he supposed to do about it?

"I don't think it's that dangerous, Will," He said finally.

Her eyes widened, "But... the big snake! And spells, and stuff..."

"None of it was aimed at me," Xander said, thinking it over. "I involved myself, right?"

"I guess," Willow said reluctantly.

"It's not like I'm Harry or anything."

Willow perked up at the mention of Harry Potter, almost drawing a groan from Xander.

"God, Wills, don't tell me you've joined his fan club."

Willow blushed red, "Of course not, dummy, but I've read all the stories about him and..."

"And from what Harry grumbles about, you now know a lot of very near fictional stories about his life." Xander grinned wryly.

"Those were HISTORY books!" Willow blurted, scandalized.

"They were written by people who didn't know much history, apparently."

Willow looked a little disturbed by that, but didn't comment further. It brought to mind the similarities between her and Hermione, and Xander had to smile at the thought.

'What is it with me and scarily smart gals?' He wondered, a shiver passing through him as he looked at Willow for the first time as a Girl, and realized that she was a lot cuter than he seemed to remember. 'Whoa. Where did that come from?'

Xander shook off the thought, "Anyway, I'm a nobody at the school. What's more, I'm an American nobody, so I'm not worth killing."

Willow slapped his shoulder, "Don't talk like that! You're Xander, you're a somebody to me."

"Thanks, Wills, but that's not what I meant." Xander said softly, smiling at her. "I talked with Professor Hardy about it. I'm not worth anything to either side over there, but dead I could cause them a lot of trouble."

"Why?" Willow scrunched up her face, confused.

"Cause it would attract attention from the States," Xander shrugged, "And a lot of other countries, I guess. Right now the bad guys are still pretty crippled from what Harry did to their boss twelve years ago, and the good guys are the British government... How much do you think they want a bunch of Yanks sticking their nose into British business?"

"Not much, I suppose."

Xander smiled, "Dead on. Anyway, I'm pretty safe."

"Not if you stick your own nose in where it doesn't belong, Mister." She told him firmly, resolve face in place.

"Wills... That snake hurt a friend." Xander told her evenly in return.

Willow paled slightly, but nodded.

That was one thing she knew about Xander, one thing that she wouldn't change. He protected his friends, as best he could anyway. When they were younger he took beatings from Bullies to protect her and Jess, even though neither of them wanted him to. It was just what he did, it was who he was.

She sighed, "Alright, but please... be careful."

"Hey, no worries." Xander smiled, "I'll have Wednesday there, and you know that when in doubt, we lead with bone splitter curses."

Willow rolled her eyes, but nodded.

* * *

Summer was coming to a rapid close, and Xander found himself against the wall as he seemed to be running out of time, but not out of things to get done.

His conversations with Robert continued, with the older man speaking to him a lot about history, especially military history. That was cool, Xander found, because he'd always had a degree of interest in it, and now he had someone to talk to who had actually *fought* in the American Civil War. Robert had also been involved in the first and second world wars, and every conflict up until Vietnam, though he had only been an advisor by that point.

Robert had a far different opinions on most of the subjects than Xander had always heard, but a lot of his points made sense, so Xander wasn't sure what to believe. Robert insisted that he had to learn all he could about something, though, and only then form an opinion. Too many people just accepted the common thoughts on a subject, ignoring the facts, and what was worse, ignoring the people who were twisting those facts to their own ends.

Wand research continued, though they didn't make a lot more progress than they had managed already. Willow now had two wands claimed as her own, a Carbon rod with ground Basilisk scale core, and a Graphite model with unicorn tail hair. The two made for a good all round casting capacity, they had found.

Xander had stored all their extra blanks in his trunk, along with his notes and various components. He was already planning his own wand for fighting, based around a Carbon Rod blank and Basilisk eye core. He didn't want to waste the basilisk eye material they had, though, until he had perfected the design, it was far too valuable, especially since he and Wednesday were quite certain that the eyes were the core of the large snake's magic.

He wasn't sure, of course, that he would be able to make anything better than a fitted wand, but it *felt* like they were on the right track, so he was making plans in the hopes they would succeed.

A trip back to Three Angels had won Xander his new pair of boots, which he was certain would make an impact back at Hogwarts. The new boots were based off a Motorcycle design, with metal clasps that gleamed against the iridescent green flecks of the snake skin material. Almost black, they glimmered green in the right light, and suited his Slytherin colors perfectly.

They had cost him a bit, more so in materials than cash, since he had to provide the basilisk skin for them, but Xander figured it was worth it there. The bootmaker had counseled him to use more material than needed, fashioning a larger pair of boots than he normally wore. Charms were then applied to shrink them to a perfect fit.

When Xander had asked why, the answer had surprised him not so much because it was surprising, but rather because it made so much sense.

"Well boy, it's like this," The old man had told him, "Sizing charms can make a cloak, or boots, or whatever, larger or smaller as you need them... but they can't make more material. So they're stretching the material, or compressing it, to fit. In most cases, that don't matter none. But this here, this is basilisk skin, and it has some properties that you don't want to spread thin if you have a choice. Better to make it bigger, then shrink it down, that actually makes the material tougher by focusing its strengths into a smaller area. These'll be as fine a pair of boots as I've ever made, you've my word on that."

With that answer, Xander had simply nodded and told the craftsman to do his best and he would take the expert's advice on the matter.

Xander had to admit, though, that he was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts. Willow, Jessie, and all were great, but there was just something about a magical environment that was so damned cool. He couldn't believe that he was actually getting assigned *magic* as HOMEWORK. It was so insanely cool that Xander could barely contain himself sometimes.

Being a Star Wars geek from way back, it was like being approached and asked to join the Jedi order or something. He honestly couldn't understand anyone who didn't love every moment of it.

Which brought him back to the Grimoire.

That book from his first year had unlocked a few levels now that he was about to go into his third, giving him access to spells even further along than it had before. The release of Sirius Black into his precious reservoir of knowledge, however, was a mixed blessing at best. The Wizard turned Shaggy Dog, or vice versa (Xander wasn't certain which), was a pest that constantly forced Xander to fight him off if he wanted to actually read anything.

The flip side was that Xander was getting better with a lot of rather obscure spells that pertained to enchanted items. He'd also begun to learn more and more about how the book had been written originally.

It was all based around a very old charm known as The Protean Charm, ironically one that Xander knew quite well since he had come across it when research magical tattoos. It was the same spell that made the base for the Dark Mark on the arms of Chief Moldy Shorts thugs.

The Protean was from a very obscure branch of magic that was based strongly around what was called the Similarity Principal. In fact, Xander had learned quickly, that few Witches or Wizards had ever really heard about it, maybe as little as one in ten. Which was ironic, since almost every non-magical person on the planet knew of one of its applications, the Voodoo Doll.

Basically, the Similarity Principal stated that like affected like, and it was possible to connect two similar items so that what affected one, would affect the other. That was how a Voodoo Doll, properly made, could affect the person it was crafted to resemble, it was also how Voldemort could inflict pain on anyone wearing the Dark Mark from any Dark Mark within his reach. It was how the book was connected with the one in Narcissa Malfoy's study...

And, more interestingly in Xander's opinion, it was also how a LOT of semi-legal wizarding objects were made, including one Sirius Black referred to as The Marauder's Map.

Sirius refused to hand over the details on how to make said map, but he had been hinting around it, and Xander was wondering if it were possible to make one of his own. The protean charm was very advanced, NEWT level at least, but much of the rest was relatively easy, though probably long, detailed, and precise in nature. He would bring it up with Hermione and Wednesday back at school, Xander decided. If nothing else, it would be fun to research, especially when he started to think about what ELSE the Protean could be used to make.

* * *

Almost too soon, yet after such a long wait, it was time to leave for school again.

Xander had said his goodbyes, and was waiting for the portkey to Salem when his Mom and Dad came in.

Anthony looked serious as he sat down, "Son... we should talk."

"What's up, Dad?"

"We just want you to be careful."

Xander smiled, "I will, Mom... Dad, I promise. If it was really dangerous it's not like I'd be going back, right?"

His parents exchanged a glance, which caused Xander to stare for a moment.

"Some in the family want you there, Son," Tony said after a moment, "They're putting a lot of pressure on us, and the school."

"How?"

"Harris is a big family, with a lot of power," Tony sighed, "And right now, the head seems to think that you getting closer to a few of those kids over there is a good thing. That place seems a little off too me, but I've never been to a magical school, so I don't know for sure. I know that the Wizarding world can be dangerous, or at least seem like it, to normal folk though, so I expect it's not as bad as it seems to me..."

Xander nodded, he'd already worked that out. Well, and Robert had said as much as well.

"So I just want you to know to watch your back, and try to keep your head down, ok boy?" Tony said gruffly.

Xander nodded, "I will."

Jessica hugged him quickly then, and Xander fought off a lump in his throat as she sobbed a little.

"We're both going to miss you, so try and come back in one piece, k?" Tony asked with a wry smile.


	46. Chapter 46

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The portkey released Xander with all the normal grace he was able to muster, that was none at all, and he slammed into the grounds outside Salem.

"Did that hurt, man? That looked like it hurt."

Xander groaned, pushing himself over, and looked up to see a boy about his age looking down at him.

"You ok?" The boy asked, extending a hand. "I'm Mike."

"Xander." He replied, taking the hand and letting the boy help him to his feet.

"Good, the right guy came falling out of the sky."

Xander curled his lip up in a sarcastic expression, but didn't reply.

"The Headmaster wanted me to meet you, I'll take you to his office."

"Thanks."

The meeting with the headmaster was really just a formality, and Xander breezed through it in a few minutes. His marks, both from the Hogwarts professors and Professor Hardy were adequate to keep pretty much everyone off his case, so really all he was doing was confirming what he already knew.

When released, Xander headed back for the main gates. He'd agreed to meet Wednesday here, as they'd be going on the England together, and despite the fact that they had gotten together a lot over the summer it felt like a reunion of sorts.

"Alexander."

Xander turned and recognized The Lavelle Matriarch, Jessica, as she approached. "Ma'am."

"How was your summer?"

"Fine." Xander said, his tone a little uncertain. He wasn't sure what this woman, or anyone else in the family for that matter, wanted with him. But everyone he knew was warning him to tread softly.

"I understand that you are doing well in your classes."

"I guess so."

"Excellent. A Hogwarts education carries a great deal of esteem in certain circles, young man. See that you take it seriously."

Xander nodded automatically, "I do."

"Have you chosen your courses for the next year?"

Xander nodded, "I'm taking the normal load, plus Runes and Arithmancy."

"Good choices," The Lavelle Matriarch nodded approvingly. "Those will open the widest career path in the future. Have you thought that far ahead?"

Xander shook his head, "Not really, Ma'am. Over there it's easy to get caught up in what's happening, but when I come home everything is different."

She raised one eyebrow, "indeed. I can see how, if you were from England, one might seriously plan on joining The Proud."

Xander blinked, "The Proud?"

"Sorry," She smiled slightly, "What do they call it over there? Oh yes, The Aurors. The Proud are the American Ministry's Law Enforcement Branch, well... they're our Federal level group, at least. Unlike the Europeans, we Americans don't centralize law enforcement to the same degree. Wizarding Constables enforce the laws in their own communities, The Proud exist to handle issues beyond their ability, generally Dark Lord types and Dark Bands."

Xander couldn't help but smirk, "I didn't know Metallica was a threat."

Apparently purebloods in the States' weren't quite as separated from normal culture as in England, because that comment earned him a dark scowl from the old lady. "A Dark Band is akin to what you might know as an Outlaw Gang. A group of wizards and witches, and occasionally other creatures, that while individually are not particularly powerful, operate as a group to terrorize communities."

That brought Xander up short, as he considered it, "Wow. I've never heard of the like."

"Well, it's not a strictly American invention by a long shot, young man, however our extremely large expanse of territory, compared to population, makes it a viable alternative for outlaws of all stripes. When you combine it with American laws against using military force on our own citizens, you can see how these groups survive."

Xander nodded, filing the information away. "Why do they call the cops, The Proud?"

She smiled, "Because' they're LEOs, and Lions always travel in a Pride."

Xander blinked, but was obviously confused.

"LEO, Law Enforcement Officer." She explained, "The Proud, or Pride, is America's Federal Response Organization. We mandate them to less than one hundred members, but they're the most powerful and well trained Wizards and Witches in the country, some say the world."

Xander smirked, "Most of those live in the States, I'll bet."

"Or Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the like," She nodded with a smile.

"Wha? Wait, why?"

"Why what?" Jessica seemed as confused as Xander suddenly felt.

"Why would Cuba or Mexico say that our guys are the best?"

"Our...?" Her face suddenly cleared, "Oh, wait, I see. You were muggle raised, of course. I apologize, I can see that there are several things you don't know. For one, there is no Magical Ministry of the 'United States'. The American Ministry of Magic actually represents Wizards and Witches from Canada, The United States, Mexico... Basically down as far as Panama, and yes Cuba is under the same government on our side of things. Basically all of North and Central America, aside from Alaska."

Xander blinked, "Why not Alaska?"

"The Russian Magical Federation controls that," She said with a shrug, "Always has."

Xander slumped, trying to wrap his mind around it, and failing almost totally. "Whoa."

"Most political lines in our world doesn't quite match up with the corresponding lines in the non-magical world, child," She said matter of factly. "In Europe, particularly, things are a horrid mess. All the Muggle wars have shifted the lines around massively from where they originally were, yet few of those wars affected Magical lines of authority. I don't suppose that's really much of a concern to the schooling in Hogwarts, however, since Magically the British Isles falls entirely under one government."

"Oh man," Xander moaned, "You mean I have to learn a whole new set of countries?"

The Lavelle Matriarch suppressed a smile with thin compressed lips, but nodded, "Yes, though most of the countries are more or less the same, just their boundaries have a margin for error."

"No wonder the world seems to be in such a mess," Xander muttered.

"I rather think that there other reasons for that, young man," She told him sternly, "At any rate, in North America at least, it's part of normal life."

"Why's that?"

"Because our ministry is more of a loosely allied group of independent states," She explained, "So the idea of flexible boundaries of jurisdiction is something you should get used to. There are different laws in different areas of the country, even in different towns in some cases."

"That sounds... complicated."

"Wizards and Witches came to America to get away from the iron hands of European rulers, and the ministries they were backing." She told him, "Central government is anathema to most first Generation Americans, and we're not yet so far removed from those men and women that we've forgotten. In fact, it's entirely possible that there are a couple of them left, Franklin knows that we've misplaced one or two of the Founding Families, and their Founders."

"Misplaced?" Xander asked, amused.

"In the Magical world, anything is possible, Alexander." She told him calmly. "Including some truly spectacular ages. At any rate, this is getting beyond the original topic, which I believe was what you intend to do when you graduate?"

Xander shifted uncomfortable, "I don't really know yet. I've been playing with a lot of things, and there are some that interest me, but I don't know enough about anything yet."

"Hmmm..." She nodded, accepting that. "I've heard about your patent, so perhaps you have a future in potions research."

"THAT was an accident!" Xander protested, flushing hotly. "I was trying to make a joke potion to turn back on some pranksters at school! I swear!"

She chuckled dryly, practically a cackle, "No need to swear in my direction, Alexander. I believe you, but still many great discoveries are made by accident. That doesn't mean that the people who made them were worth any less in their fields."

She rose up just as an ancient Rolls steamed onto the school grounds.

"Remember, Alexander," She said, sparing him a glance before turning away. "The Families are watching you now. We can aid your greatly in whatever you choose to do... or not."

Xander watched the old woman walk away, his expression darkening at her parting words as he wondered if it was more of an offer... or a threat?

The Rolls Royce came to a smooth halt in front of him, breaking him of those thoughts as the doors opened and the Addams stepped out. He smiled genuinely, and rose to greet them.


	47. Chapter 47

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Platform 9 and Three Quarters, London.

The trip from Salem had gone as smoothly as any International Portkey had ever gone in Xander's experience. That is, he would up flat on his face while Professor Hardy and Wednesday looked down at him in thinly disguised amusement.

"The secret to landing on your feet is to remember that you're moving," Hardy said as he helped the boy up. "Most people, especially non-magical raised, expect it to be some sort of teleport. Star Trek, beam me up Scotland, and all that."

Xander barely held back the snicker, though he had to admit that Hardy was a lot better at the non-magical references than most Wizards seemed to be.

"It's not, however." Hardy went on, "We're actually moving, and you have to land like your moving. Move your legs to absorb the excess momentum, and you'll land at a walking pace. If you don't, it'll just slam you into the ground every time."

"Thanks." Xander said, shaking himself as he looked around.

The Platform was filling up nicely, students from all over England gathering for their year at Hogwarts. At a glance you could easily tell who was the purebloods and who came from a non-magical family, irrespective of whether they wore robes or jeans. There was just something about how they walked that gave them away, in Xander's opinion.

"I smell fear." Wednesday said softly, looking around.

"What?" Xander glanced over at her.

She didn't repeat herself, however, instead choosing to study the crowd. "Police."

"Where?"

She nodded to several red cloaked wizards who were moving through the crowd, then again to several others that were moving the same way, but wearing normal robes. Only after did she turn to Professor Hardy, "Has something happened?"

Hardy frowned, "I'm not sure. I heard something about an escaped criminal, but that was weeks ago."

"Hang on, I'll find out." Xander said, spotting someone he knew.

He made his way over, through the crowd, and paused by her side. ""lo."

Daphne Greengrass jumped a little, then smiled as she recognized him. "Harris. How was your summer?"

"Well spent," Xander returned the smile. Then he nodded around, "What's going on? Aurors running around, both in and out of uniform, and people are tense enough to snap if you look at them wrong."

Daphne glanced around and sighed, leaning in closer to whisper, "It's Sirius Black."

"Black?" Xander blinked, honestly stunned.

Daphne mistook his reaction for something else and nodded, "I know. How anyone could escape from Azkaban, I have no idea, but he did it. I take it you just got here from America?"

Xander nodded.

"The Ministry's been pumping it up for weeks, now, even though Black hasn't been seen since he got loose," Daphne said, "My father expects that Fudge is using it to push some unpopular legislation through the Wizengamot."

"What did Black do?" Xander asked, really curious.

"You don't know?"

"American, remember?"

"Ah, yes, well..." Daphne gave him an arched look. "Black is the one who betrayed the Potter's to the Dark Lord. After He Who Must Not Be Named died trying to kill Harry, they say Black went mad, He killed Peter Pettigrew and over a dozen muggles with a single curse and was laughing hysterically when the Aurors found him."

Xander frowned, trying to place that with what he knew of Black from the Grimoire. Sirius was a pain in the ass, but a Blood Purist he was not. At least not by words or actions within the book. Very strange, Xander thought. Of course, Wizards were all nuts, so who knew?

Daphne took his frown for worry and merely shrugged, "I wouldn't worry overly. Daddy says that Black's reputation is overblown anyway, he's really only so widely feared because as the traitor who have up the Potters he's almost as famous as the Dark Lord himself. He was a good Auror, apparently, but nothing beyond that."

Xander nodded with a quirk of his lips and a shrug, "Hey, I'm not worried. Even if he is some super villain incarnate, he's going to go after Harry first, remember?"

Daphne giggled slightly, but nodded. "That's what everyone says."

Xander nodded, mind racing, and thanked the girl for her help before heading back to Hardy and Wednesday. He quickly filled them in as the students began to board.

Hardy shook his head, "Going to school with that Potter boy seems to keep things from getting dull, I'll admit. Alright, I'll see you at school in a couple weeks. Follow your lesson plans, and do watch your backs."

"Yes Sir." They said together, drawing a smile from the man.

"Go on, get lost the both of you."

The two smirked and clambered aboard the train.

* * *

The train filled up quickly, but Wednesday and Xander had scored an empty compartment with little trouble. Most people who past took one look at Xander's Slytherin colors and moved on, and those who seemed inclined to enter paused when they spotted Wednesday before bolting. There was one who ignored the terrifying third years, however, and entered quietly.

"May I sit here?"

Wednesday looked over at the blond girl, recognizing her as a Ravenclaw a year behind them and nodded. "You may."

Luna Lovegood smiled, her expression a little dazed like she wasn't exactly listening to the here and now, and promptly dropped into a seat across from them. "Thank you. I'm Luna."

"Xander." Xander said with a smile.

"Wednesday."

"Oh, I know." She said, "You're infamous in the dorms."

Xander snorted, "She's infamous everywhere."

He grunted under a strategically placed elbow, and forced a smile through the pain. "Truth hurts, I guess."

"Yes." Wednesday replied, "Particularly the person who speaks it."

The train got underway, leaving the three alone in their carriage and to their own devices. Xander spent some time working on his old 'battery' project, using some ideas Willow had given him, while Luna tried to engage Wednesday in a chat about magical creatures.

"I knew I could sense the wrackspurts in this compartment," Luna said, her tone disconnected from her expressions. "They must cling to you terribly."

"You are mistaken," Wednesday returned equally, "Wrackspurts tend not to survive around an Addams."

Luna blinked, "Oh! Then they must be..."

Wednesday permitted herself a slight smile.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that."

"Why? I get along fabulously with them."

Xander looked up from his book, his mind having half been on the conversation, and noted that Luna's expression had shifted to one of mild, though wide eyed, apprehension. He made a note to ask what the hell they were talking about later, but after years of experience with Willow, Wednesday, and Hermione, he wasn't stupid enough to ask it now when the two of them could gang up on him and bury him in facts he didn't need, nor particularly want.

So he filtered out the conversation and went back to his notes.

The problem of a Magical battery was a pain, though Xander was starting to think that maybe he had a way around it. Willow had pointed out that there were lots of historical, and current, magical items that did exactly what he was talking about. They stored magical power, and let it out on command.

The problem was that they all used certain things in common with each other. Gold, Silver, and Wood were good at holding a spell, for example, however he didn't want some large clunky item. He was looking for a tattoo, much to Willow's ire.

Oh the rant she's leveled on him over that one, Xander shuddered to even remember it. Still, the conversation did bring up some good points. He *could* use gold and silver, in fact many high end tattoo inks used metals as their base. The problem was that they were trace amounts, not enough to hold any significant charge of magical energy.

That was where Runes came in.

Runes could also hold a charge, and even generate one to a degree. So now Xander was looking into how to work gold and silver based inks, with runic designs, into his concept. He'd run the numbers by Hermione, then Willow, and see if anything came of it.

* * *

While Xander was reading the train got underway, and sped quickly to its destination. They were closing on Hogsmeade, in the process of getting changed for school, when the train stopped suddenly and threw Xander into Wednesday, and both of them into Luna.

"What the hell?"

The trio got untangled, and Xander was looking around in confusion.

"Is it getting cold in here?" He asked, shivering suddenly.

"Yes."

Xander glanced over at Wednesday, surprised at her answer. He's assumed it was just him, but then he looked at the window and saw what she saw, ice crystals forming quickly along the glass. His wand was out in a second, trailing just behind Wednesday's own. "What's going on?"

"We're being searched." Luna said, her tone clearer than before, but somehow smaller.

Xander glanced over, and was disturbed to see the girl curling up and shuddering on her seat. "Are you ok?"

"No." She said, barely muffling a sob. "No please..."

Xander felt sick to his stomach, the chill pealing through him as the light itself seemed to retreat. "Wednesday... what's going..."

"Get behind me." She said, pushing him back.

The door to the compartment burst open then, and Xander saw a ghastly thing float in. He shivered, but lifted his wand, the bone splitting curse on his lips.

"Don't." Wednesday pushed his arm down. "It won't work."

"B... b-but." Xander shivered.

"Hold her." Wednesday pushed him at Luna. "It will help."

He slumped into the seat, and almost instantly Luna latched on to him, sobbing into his shoulder. Xander felt cold, through and through, like every good thing in his life had been taken, and would never return. And so he held her back, and it seemed to help as the feeling lessened.

"Get out." Wednesday said, staring evenly at the thing. "There is no one here that you seek."

The thing gazed at her for a long time, then slowly backed out, retreating from their compartment the way it had come. The door closed behind it, and for a moment nobody moved. Then Wednesday Addams took a shuddering breath and slumped, falling into Xander's free arm as he grabbed her and pulled her into the seat.

"W-what the hell was that thing?" He gasped out.

"Dementor." Wednesday said, "Minor demons."

She shivered slightly, eyes burning as she looked at him. "I hate demons."


	48. Chapter 48

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The arrival of the Express in Hogsmeade was a somber, yet frenzied, affair as Aurors rushed the train, and students struggled to get off. Xander and Wednesday pushed their way off, Xander carrying Luna who was still shivering.

"Hey! Can we get a medic here!?"

A shabbily dressed figure rushed over to them and, quickly eyeing the three of them produced a large slab of chocolate and handed it over. "Share this between you. It'll help."

Xander glanced at it, "it's chocolate."

The man grinned, "Trust me."

Wednesday accepted the slab and broke it into pieces, handing some to Luna and the rest to Xander after she had taken her own. Xander was surprised at how quickly the warmth returned as the chocolate melted in his mouth, and in a few seconds Luna asked to be put back on her feet.

"Whoa." Xander blinked, "Ok, I can admit when I'm wrong."

"Practice does make everything easier." Wednesday replied dryly.

"Hey!" Xander glare over at her, "That's uncalled for. Probably true, but uncalled for."

Luna giggled slightly, then clapped a hand over her mouth, her wide eyes even wider than before.

"I'm everyone's entertainment." Xander sighed theatrically.

"Not everyone's," Wednesday said, nodding to another group.

Draco Malfoy was crowing in Harry Potter's direction, "Fainted, Potter? Really now, I knew you were overrated but come on..."

Xander shook his head as Harry was helped off by Ron and Hermione. "Harry fainted?"

"Dementors affect different people in different ways," Wednesday said by way of explanation. "Most of our age experience a mild chill, and a sensation of happiness fleeing forever."

Xander nodded, "Yeah. That... sounds about right."

"The worse your experiences, however, the stronger the effect." The girl went on, "If your life has been hard enough, a Dementor can summon up the very worst thing you have ever experienced and force you to relive it."

Xander grimaced, knowing that Harry's life hadn't exactly been perfume and roses. "You didn't seem too bothered, not until it left anyway."

Wednesday looked over at him for a moment, then turned toward the castle. "That... thing had no idea who it was facing. I react differently to darkness than most."

She was walking away by the time she finished, leaving Xander to stare after her.

"She ain't kidding, either." Xander finally said, chuckling as he too headed for the carriages.

* * *

The sorting ceremony was a subdued affair, with the teachers and students both quietly going about their business with very little of the boisterous behavior of previous years. Xander had mixed feelings on that, since he was having doubts about his planned opening salvo against the Twins.

He'd been planning it all summer, however, and as the firsties were being sorted off Xander finally decided to go for it and surreptitiously began casting.

He used his Graphite/Unicorn Hair wand, because he figured that it wouldn't leave the same tell tales as his matched wand, and carefully began laying the charms needed on the room. The Great Hall was a spectacular piece of enchantment, something Xander would have recognized even without Hermione hammering it in every year, practically everything in the room was charmed or enchanted somehow. The spells were, in fact, nearly impossible to break or alter in any permanent way, the strength of the magic involved was so great.

However, they were also explicitly designed to accept temporary modifications as a method for adapting the room to different needs. Technically only the Headmaster or a Professor was supposed to be able to make said modifications, however over the years several students had worked out the methodology for doing so... including the Coven and the Marauders.

Now Xander prepared his first sally of the year using their techniques as the hat droned on, sending students to their tables.

By the time the sorting was done, and the Headmaster's requisite nonsensical words had been uttered, Xander too was finished and the meal appeared.

This year no one was digging in too fast, having remembered the events of the year before, and the upper students were carefully vetting the food. Xander, however, didn't. He quickly dug in and drew surprised stares from around him.

"Did you check the food?" Daphne nudged him.

Xander shook his head, "nope.

"But... the Twins?"

"If they get me, they get me." Xander replied, then smirked, "but I don't think they're stupid enough to try. Not after last year."

Daphne considered than, and had to admit that it was likely true. She shrugged and took a sampling for herself, "You think they've given up?"

Xander snorted, "not hardly. But they'll come from a new direction this year, I'll bet."

"That's hardly comforting."

Xander just grinned.

The meal progressed with little incident, apparently even the twins were feeling less than eager to mix things up given the events of the day, until the desert course was served. Xander waited until that was petering out, most students looking around more and at their food less, then he tripped his charm string and carefully made a point of digging in to a new slice of pie.

At first nothing happened, then a gasp and series of whispers began to echo back and forth through the hall. Xander looked up, putting on a confused expression, and looked to where the others were pointing.

On the charmed ceiling of the Hall a large banner was playing itself out.

HEIRS OF THE MARAUDERS, BEWARE.

Xander smirked inwardly, really he felt kinda cheap stealing Mold in his Short's lines, but it was too good to pass up. The tension in the room had cranked up noticeably, and Xander was only mildly surprised to see the twins pale slightly.

He had been wondering if they knew anything about their predecessors, but from what he could tell from the book it was entirely probable so he'd played it out as if they did.

'So, I wonder what little piece of the marauders they found?' he mused as the ceiling changed again.

THE COVEN AWAKENS, AND WE ARE WATCHING YOU.

It really was all he could do not to grin insanely at the sudden look the twins shot each other, their freckled face paling a little more as they searched the room for their unknown adversaries. That was a memory worth savoring, Xander decided, as he looked around the room himself.

The twins reaction was exactly what he had hoped for, but it was the *teachers* reactions that sent his mind into overdrive.

The shabby looking man who had given them the slabs of chocolate earlier was sitting, wide eyed and opened mouthed as he stared up, and *every* other teacher including the Headmaster, was staring at him with suspicious eyes.

Well, except for Snape, who was glaring with killing intent.

'What the hell is that?' Xander wondered, as he wracked his brain for the man's name.

Lupin, he thought. He hadn't been paying a lot of attention when the Headmaster introduced him.

Remus Lupin.

Xander frowned, his focus shifting as he started thinking about the reaction from the teacher's and filed the twins away as less interesting for the moment. Lupin was now shaking his head and whispering intently to the headmaster, obviously denying involvement.

Xander knew that Lupin had no connections to the Coven, at least none that he could think of. So, realistically, that only left one possibility.

Was he a Marauder?

The teachers quickly dispelled the charms Xander had laid, and amidst the whispers of the students, the assembly was broken up and everyone sorted out to their dorms.

* * *

"Well!" Daphne blinked, "What was that all about?"

"Don't know." Xander lied, "Did you see the teachers, though?"

"Yeah, they were glaring at that new Professor. I wonder if he did it?"

"Snape seemed to think so."

Daphne cracked a wry grin, "True, however as much as it pains me, that may not be a good judge of the situation."

Xander chuckled, but nodded as the two of them let themselves into the Common Room.

"You filthy little worm! What possible excuse could the hat have for letting something like YOU disgrace our great House!?"

Xander looked up and rolled his eyes. Apparently Draco had made it back first, and had quickly corned a First Year. "God, Draco, it's the first day. Do you HAVE to be courting trouble already?"

Malfoy spun on him, "Stay out of this Harris."

"What did this one do?"

"This little mudblood, who belongs in a ZOO, touched my robes."

Having spent a little time chatting back and forth with Draco's mother, Xander had to wonder where the guy got his lines. His mother, while a pureblood supremacist to be sure, at least had style.

"Dude," Xander sighed, "Isn't it enough that two thirds of the school would probably look the other way if they saw you bleeding on the floor? Do you HAVE to make enemies in the place you sleep?"

"What are you babbling about?" Draco turned on him, the first year scrambling away.

"Pretty much every Gryffindor hates your guts..."

"As if I care."

"Which means most of the Puffs hate your guts," Xander continued.

"Useless twits."

"And a good chunk of the Claws too." Xander finished, "I figure that amounts to about two thirds of the school. I don't know WHY you seem to want them to hate you, and I don't care. But, if it were me, I don't think I'd be trying to make enemies of people who, A) have been sorted into the house of ruthless cunning, and B) Have access to where I *sleep*."

Draco looked a little lost for a moment, then paled. "Are you threatening me?"

"Me? Dude, I don't hate you." Xander shook his head, "If I did, I wouldn't be telling you this, I'd just slit your throat or whatever while you were sleeping. This brings me to my point..."

Draco looked around, noting the people listening to the conversation even as they struggled to NOT appear to be listening, and swallowed. "No one would dare."

"You and I have GOT to be using different definitions of the words 'ruthless', 'cunning', and 'ambitious'," Xander said dryly as he pushed past Draco and headed for his room.

Behind him he left a completely confused, and newly paranoid, Draco Malfoy looking around with new eyes.

* * *

"Nice speech."

Xander glanced up and nodded to Blaise Zabini as the boy entered the room. He didn't respond, though, having noticed that Blaise tended to be quiet himself, and just went on with unpacking.

"I doubt he'll take it to heart."

Xander looked up again, and this time shrugged, "Distracted him long enough for the Firstie to get away. That's all I was aiming for. If he takes it to heart, that's a bonus."

Zabini nodded, not saying anything more.

Xander opened his trunk and pulled out some of his research books to set by his bed. He didn't take out any of his notebooks or the Grimoire, of course, those remained safely secured. Then he shifted the trunk to another compartment and drew out a change of clothes.

That caught Blaise' attention, and the dark skinned boy leaned over.

"I say, is that an expanded trunk?"

Xander nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"Surprised to see one." Blaise admitted, "They're bloody rare."

"You have one, don't you?" Xander asked, having noticed it before.

Blaise nodded, "Sure, but my Grandfather builds them. I'd bet good galleons that we're the only students in the school with one."

"You'd lose." Xander smirked.

Blaise stared for a moment, then nodded, "Addams. Of course. Grandfather Zabini sold two last fall to Gomez Addams. He only sold three all year, and one of those was to a Master Auror who had the standard Ministry subsidy they all get."

"I didn't know they were that rare. Aren't all school trunks a little expanded?"

Blaise nodded, "Yes, but those are child's play compared to a multi compartment trunk. Those are bought premade from Muggles, then charmed by apprentices usually. True expanded trunks are handmade, and it takes a Master Charmsmith and Carpenter to do it."

"Wow." Xander said, looking at the trunk again, impressed. "I didn't know. How much are they worth?"

"That depends on who you ask," Blaise smiled very slightly. "My Grandfather would say that they're priceless. I believe the going market value is around twenty thousand Galleons, unless you have the Ministry subsidy."

Xander blinked, thinking it through. A Galleon was worth about one point three Golden Eagles, and a Golden Eagle was worth... last time he checked, Xander tried to remember the exchange, a GE held 6 grams of pure gold at around thirty dollars a gram... Xander's eyes flashed opened and he whistled.

"That's a lot of cash." he admitted, wondering at how much Gomez had spent on him.

"And now you know why I was surprised." Blaise said simply.

Xander nodded silently, and made a quick promise to return the favor to the Addamses when he could. He also eyed the trunk with a little more respect than he had before, surprised at the value of something he owned.

It seemed that there was more to the Wizarding world than cool toys.

There were *expensive* cool toys.


	49. Chapter 49

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Malfoy Manor.

Narcissa chuckled softly to herself as she read the day's entry in the Grimoire, particularly when she reached the part about Remus being caught in the crossfire of the little joke Xander had played on the Twins.

'Poor Remus, he must be going spare.' She thought to herself, finding the man's plight to be amusing for a moment.

Then she thought about Sirius and her humor was gone.

How that man had escaped from Azkaban, she didn't know, but it did present an opportunity, if she could get to him before he got himself caught again. Unfortunately Lucius was being no help at all, merely growling at her when she asked him to contact Sirius.

'honestly, it's not as if it's difficult to work out that my dear husband was a Death Eater,' She thought irritably, 'Only a total fool would believe otherwise, which explains Fudge quite nicely. All I want is for him to contact Sirius so I can speak to my cousin before he does something stupid like attack the Potter boy at Hogwarts.'

From what Fudge reported that seemed to be her Cousin's target, but it could NOT be allowed. Narcissa set her jaw, if Lucius would not help she would have to make some inquiries of her own.

Sirius must NOT be caught.

* * *

"Stop playing us for fools, Lupin." Severus Snape sneered, "The very day you step foot back in this school, the name of the Marauders is flaunted across the great hall, do you expect us to believe you had nothing to do with it?"

"I already answered that, Severus." Remus said softly, face pensive. "And to be honest, it's not the Marauder's name that has me on my heels."

"Do explain, Remus." Albus motioned to the tired looking man.

"I haven't heard from the Coven since I finished school, Albus." Remus said pensively, "James and I never did figure out who they were, and Sirius would never tell us. He thought it was a great joke."

"Are you saying that Sirius Black was part of the Coven?" Minerva McGonagall stiffened in her chair, eyes wide as she pinned Remus with a glare from across the room.

"No, but he found out who they were." Remus replied, a touch of a smirk showing on his face, "We waged war with the Coven for three years, and only stopped when Sirius brokered a 'treaty'."

"I remember." Minerva said sourly, drawing chuckles from Fillius and Albus. "Particularly since you four had no idea who you were fighting, so you just targeted everyone."

"That was mostly James' idea," Remus admitted with a smile, "We also had to fire twenty times as much in order to make up for the fact that they knew who we were."

"Indeed," Albus chuckled softly, but then grew serious. "However, the fact that Sirius Black has connections to the Coven, and their reappearance now... has disturbing connotations."

Remus sighed, "I know."

"So we must find out who is taking up their mantle," Albus said softly, "Did Sirius ever give any hints at who they may have been?"

Remus shook his head, "Not really. He seemed to think that we knew them, though."

"From my House?" Minerva leaned forward.

"Possibly," Remus acceded, "But I'm not sure that the Coven was just one house. Sirius seemed to hint that they were a cross house alliance of sorts, specifically created to nail us."

"If anyone could drive multiple houses to close cooperation, it would have been you four." Severus said sourly.

Remus didn't rise to the bait, however, and just shrugged in response.

"Very well," Albus said, "We'll have to watch for any more action by this 'Coven'. Judging from the choice of names, we're probably looking at Witches I believe."

Remus nodded, "Traditionally, a Coven is all or mostly female."

"Only for the last century or so," Minerva warned.

"Indeed," Albus conceded, "The old root simply means to Convene. However, if students invented it twenty years ago..."

Minerva nodded, acceding the point.

"It may be unrelated," Fillius spoke up for the first time.

"Fillius?" Albus questioned softly, "Do you have information to add?"

Professor Flitwick considered it, "Possibly. Was it just me, or did the message seem to be targeting someone specific?"

Remus scowled a little sourly himself this time, "That's how it felt."

Fillius chuckled, "Not you, Remus, I think you were merely... unintentional splash over."

Several teachers chuckled at that, and Remus seemed to be caught between which was worse, being the target or merely having wandered blindly into the firing line. "Who then?"

"The Weasley Twins," Fillius suggested. "The 'Heirs' of the Marauders."

"That's possible," Minerva conceded, "Those two are surely cut from the same cloth."

"There is also Harry."

The room fell silent, all eyes turning to Albus, who went on, "Harry is the only blood Heir of the Marauders, and the message could have been aimed at him. I believe that it would behoove us to locate the members of this Coven as quickly as we can, just to ensure the safety of the school."

The staff nodded in agreement, and shortly thereafter the meeting broke up.

* * *

School went on, the year beginning with a bang but quickly descending into routine as the students found that even with demons floating around outside the wards, things were mind numbingly normal within.

Xander had set aside the wand projects for the time being, not having anything more than a few minor adjustments in mind for them, and those could wait until summer. He instead started interesting Wednesday and Hermione in a new school project of sorts.

"Marauder's Map?" Hermione frowned, looking over the notes. "These are some advanced spells."

Xander nodded, "yeah, but think about the final form. A real-time map of the school? Too cool."

"Indeed. The information value alone is staggering," Wednesday admitted.

"What you two might want with such a map is, quite frankly, frightening." Hermione said flatly.

"Could be worse." Xander smirked.

"How?"

"The twins could have one."

Hermione shivered, cringing at the very idea. "That's horrifying."

Xander grinned and nodded, then turned back to the notes. "It's all based around this, The Protean Charm."

Hermione leaned in, "That's very advanced."

"NEWT level," Xander confirmed.

Hermione's expression wavered between horrified and enthused by the prospect of learning a spell that advanced.

"The tough part is actually going to be linking the charm to the Castle Wards." Xander admitted while she was thinking, though. "From what I can gather, that's not easy."

"Why?"

"You have to do it from the Headmaster's Office."

Hermione started, then drew in a breath to scream at him, only to have Wednesday calmly slap a hand over her mouth.

"We're in the Library."

Hermione eyeballed Wednesday for a moment, then nodded as she took in a deep breath through her nose. As the hand dropped away she leaned in, whispering fiercely. "Are you insane? You can't be serious!"

Xander shrugged, "That's where the keystone to the wards is placed. It's the only place you can finish the map."

"Well then we're not going to be making one, are we?" The bushy haired witch hissed.

"Well, I don't know about you..." Xander grinned.

"You don't have the Arithmancy to pull this off." She said simply.

"No, but I do." Wednesday replied.

"Plus I think I can get some help from others," Xander said with a smirk.

"I'll... I'll tell!"

Xander raised his eyebrows, "Really? Over this?"

Hermione wavered, wincing visibly.

"You won't tell, Hermione." Xander said after a moment, "You won't betray us over this. We're not talking about hurting anyone, or ourselves. Worst thing that happens is we get caught."

"That's bad enough." She objected sullenly. "You could get expelled."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Hermione, Draco Malfoy regularly attacks other students. Harry, Ron, and yourself are constantly getting into the most idiotic messes... Do you *really* believe that we'll get expelled over breaking into the Headmaster's office?"

Hermione grimaced, then shook her head.

"No."

"Besides, even if we did, Salem would take us." Wednesday said coolly.

"That's fine for you, but I'm not American." Hermione said to that, then let out a breath, "Thank god."

The two just looked at her for a long moment.

"Ok fine," She huffed, "But if we get expelled I'm blaming you two."

"Deal." Xander smirked, pushing the pages over. "Here's the first steps. Do you think we can learn the Protean soon?"

"It depends, I haven't looked at it too closely yet," Hermione sighed, "It's on next year's reading list, to be honest. I'll move it up."

Xander grinned at her. Only Hermione had her reading lists planned out like that, AND could remember them so easily. Well, her and maybe Willow. He wasn't sure about Wednesday, maybe her too, but it was hard to tell. All he ever saw her reading was horror tales.

Xander made a note to introduce her to Horror comics sometime.

For the moment, though, they had a project and he had a rather difficult spell to learn.


	50. Chapter 50

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

As classes got into full swing Xander began to question his choices when it came to electives, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy both tested his resolve to learn as much as he could about magic, and his interest in same. Until Arithmancy in particular, Xander didn't really think ANYTHING could make Magic boring.

Luckily, and unluckily as it were, he already had a base in Magical Number Theory. This was good in that he wasn't struggling in class, but he was even more bored than he would have been otherwise. Good and bad traveled as a pair, or so it seemed.

The base ideas in Magical Number Theory were fairly easy to grasp. Certain numbers held a power of their own. Three, Seven, and Eleven being the most common and powerful numbers most wizards encountered. It was magically beneficial to do things in a way that related to those numbers, such as brewing potions in batches of three doses, or being the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

For an even more pronounced effect you combined them, such as brewing eleven doses of a potion that required seven ingredients in three brewing steps. The real challenge, of course, wasn't in devising the most powerful way to make such a potion, but rather formulating a potion that did what you wanted while also requiring the arithmantic steps. Potions Masters had spent their entire lives carefully reformulating specific potions to take advantage of that common rule of magic.

Madame Vector had carefully introduced them to the Wave Graph of Magical Influence, which was basically what it sounded like a large graph that showed magical potency along one axis and numbers along the other.

"As you can see," She said, looking over the class, "Magical Potency increases as we approach the number three, then declines to its lowest ebb by the number five, only to increase again as we reach seven."

The class nodded, understanding that much from the clearly printed graph, but Hermione quickly raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"What about Zero, Professor?" Hermione asked, frowning as she looked at the graph, "Your numbers start with one."

"Well you can hardly perform zero steps, or use zero ingredients in a potion, Miss Granger." Vector replied a little testily.

Hermione sank back, shrinking a little as several in the class laughed or sneered at her.

"The Number Zero is one of the most important mathematical concepts in history," Wednesday Addams spoke up softly, her voice still somehow being heard all through the room. "I find it difficult to believe that it has no bearing on Arithmancy."

"Yes, that doesn't mean it isn't so." Vector said calmly, looking around the class. "Scholars have studied magical numbers for thousands of years, since before Wizarding Society came to exist as we know it today. These are tested truths, and while they may not be complete they are as close as anyone has yet gotten. Should you be able to add to this knowledge, you will have truly made an impact on the world."

Silence followed that statement, and she nodded in satisfaction.

"Very well, take your quills and note this down..."

* * *

The quiet and peaceful school year didn't last long for Hogwarts, of course, since in short order Draco had managed to stir things up while in Care of Magical Creatures. He'd been injured by a Hippogriff and was milking that for all it was worth, promising retribution upon the animal and on Hagrid as the class Professor.

Now Xander didn't much know Hagrid, and he didn't have that class, but what he'd seen of the big guy had been good so he was having a hard time matching what Draco was saying with the man he'd met as a first year.

As it turned out there was a reason for that, which he learned in the Library was studying with Hermione and Wednesday.

"It was really all Draco's fault, you know," Hermione practically growled, her hands flipping pages with near violent motions. "Hagrid told him to be respectful, but he had to be... be..."

"Draco?" Xander asked mildly.

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Shhh!" Madame Pince hissed from behind her desk.

Hermione blushed and shrank down a little, "And I'll bet it's not even a bad injury..."

"It isn't." Xander said dryly, "Draco doesn't wear the sling in the dorms..."

"I knew it!" She hissed.

"That doesn't meant that Hagrid did right, though," Xander went on, "It's like you said, Draco was being Draco. If you're going to do something potentially dangerous, you have to know how people are going to act."

Hermione shrank down yet again, looking glum, "Well, when you put it that way."

Wednesday looked up, eyes narrowing as she pierced Hermione with a stare. "How do you know all the details?"

"I was there," Hermione said hotly. "I saw everything."

"That class was conducted at the same time as Ancient Runes, was it not?" Wednesday said quietly. "The class you attended with us?"

Hermione suddenly got nervous, "I, Um, well I'm not sure. Couldn't have been. Oh my, I have to go, I'll see you later!"

Wednesday and Xander exchanged glances as the girl ran out of the room.

"She's hiding something."

Xander smirked, "Ya think?"

The Addams scion merely rolled her eyes as his amused tone, "I fail to see how she could be in two classes at the same time."

"Don't know," Xander shrugged, "Magic?"

That earned him a glare, "Do NOT make me hurt you."

Then she paused, considered her words, and smiled slowly. "On second thought, please... make me hurt you."

Xander gulped at her tone, and it was his turn to squirm in his seat as he made a show of looking at his bare wrist. "Hey, look at the time. Gotta go."

Wednesday watched him bolt from the library and shook her head slightly as she smiled. He was such a fool, but not in a bad way she decided. Much like Uncle Fester, perhaps. On the surface Xander resembled her father, but Gomez Addams had a terrifying dark side beneath the clown's facade.

She had seen it once, when she was very young, and it still gave her shivers to this day. Of course, all Addams had their demons, but there was something truly exciting about the true unleashed darkness she'd witnessed that day.

Wednesday shook herself free of her reverie a moment later, carefully returning to her studies with disciplined intent.

Like her father, she too had a dark side. She merely chose to leash it in a different way.

* * *

Defense Against the Dark Arts started off with a bang, literally, when the professor used an incantation that sounded suspiciously like a child's mumbling, or perhaps an African city, to fire a piece of chewed bubblegum straight up Peeve's nose when the Poltergeist tried to prevent them from entering class.

This was the first time Xander had a chance to examine the Professor closely since the opening feast. On the surface there was nothing impressive to relate about the man, other than his old and frayed robes as Malfoy constantly pointed out. He seemed competent as a teacher, though, so Xander was relieved to not be dealing with another Lockhart.

Their first class brought about a new spell, and the introduction of the class to a creature known as a Boggart. Lupin brought them up to a Staff room and, after some words from Snape, selected Neville to be the first to try the new spell.

The spell, simply incanted as 'Riddikulas' was, on the surface, nothing but a joke spell. Make fun of someone by casting a simple cantrip to make them look stupid, which made Xander wonder why he hadn't heard of it already until he looked the spell up later and found that it was, pardon the pun, ridiculously easy to stop. Like most cantrips, it actually didn't work properly, if at all, against an unwilling Wizard.

Against the Boggart, however, it worked fine as Neville proved when he turned the image of Professor Snape into a crossdresser. Even many Slytherins laughed at that, including Xander, though he did keep it a little muffled.

After that the class was treated to a spin of the Wheel of Phobias as Lupin directed them in to face their Boggart and cast the cantrip to repel it.

After Seamus had given his Banshee laryngitis Lupin called out, "Harris!"

Xander moved forward, wand in hand, and blanched slightly as the boggart became two forms that lunged in his direction. A Black clad jack booted Gestapo glared at him, drawing a Luger, while a gaily colored clown with creepy face paint grinned at him wildly.

"R... Riddikulas!" Xander snapped, flicking his wand at the duo.

The two merged and in the next instant there was a Gestapo Clown wielding a floppy rubber chicken in a way that could no longer be remotely considered menacing.

"Excellent, back now," Lupin said, nodding to Wednesday. "Addams."

Wednesday calmly stepped forward and the Boggart changed instantly, looking suspiciously to Xander like Mary Poppins. The incantation rang out and Wednesday stepped back as the Boggart became one of the most hideous hags he'd ever imagined, cackling wildly while singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Xander, alone the entire room, burst out laughing wildly as everyone else screamed at the change.

Lupin, sparing puzzled glance at Wednesday, stepped in and calmly dispatched the Boggart when it turned into an image of the Moon for him. He moved away, then quickly nodded to Neville again, "Forward Neville! Finish him off!"

Neville did just that, considerably more confident this time as the crossdressing Snape made its reappearance once more.


	51. Chapter 51

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy nee Black slammed the palm of her hand into the corner of a table, her face just slightly twisting into an irritated grimace as she attracted the attention of several others in the pub. Rosmerta looked over in her direction, but she merely shook her head to the inquiring glance.

There was nothing 'Merta could do to help her, nothing anyone could do, or would do apparently.

Some days she would cheerfully strangle her 'beloved' husband. A word from him and she knew that she could get a meeting with Sirius, Lucius was as plugged into the Dark Lord's network as he had ever been and she knew it. Instead what was she doing? Haunting Hogsmeade and playing muggle dog catcher!

'Sirius, if you live through this, I'm going to kill you.' She thought grimly as she finished her drink and left a few coins on the table as she rose.

"Will there be anything else, Madam Malfoy?" Rose asked, stepping up quietly.

"Thank you, No, Rose." Narcissa said with a tired shake of her head.

Rosmerta leaned in close enough that no one else could hear, "You look like hell, Ciss."

Narcissa stiffened slightly, but a glance in the mirror behind the bar told her that Rose had spoken the simple truth. She sighed and nodded, "I have things to do."

"If you're not going to go home, take a room upstairs for a few hours." The bar owner suggested, "You'll do no one, least of all yourself, any good if you collapse in the streets."

Narcissa grimaced at that image, but steeled herself just the same. She had to find her idiot cousin before he did something stupid to get himself killed. "I don't have time, Rose, I..."

A scream went up from outside, shocking them both, and they instantly ran to the door to see a group of Aurors herding Dementors through the streets in a hurry, heading in the direction of Hogwarts.

"What's going on!?" Rosmerta called out to a passerby, yelling above the commotion.

"Haven't you heard!?" A Man called back, "Sirius Black snuck into Hogwarts!"

Narcissa gasped softly, her knees buckling as the world wavered around her.

Rosmerta was there instantly, a single strong arm holding her up and a concerned look shooting in her direction before she looked back to the man. "Did he hurt anyone?"

"No, he tried to break into Gryffindor Dorms to get at Potter but the Painting wouldn't open."

"Did they catch him?" Narcissa asked tonelessly.

"Not yet, this is part of the search party."

Narcissa shook slightly, breathing a sigh of deep relief as she steadied herself. Rose was eyeing her nervously now, and the two just stood there as the procession moved on up the road to the Castle.

"I think you need to be talking to me, Ciss," Rose whispered in her ear, her tone hard and with a lot less of the concern she had earlier.

* * *

Xander observed the commotion as he was sequestered in the great hall with some others from his years, not quite able to fathom the situation. That Black had been able to break into the castle wasn't the problem, from what he knew about Black the man knew more about Hogwarts secrets than most anyone alive.

That, in fact, was the problem he was having.

"You ok?"

Xander started as Daphne came up behind him, "What?"

"You look confused."

"I am." Xander admitted. "Something about this stinks."

"How so?"

"Black isn't a stupid guy by any description I've heard," Xander said, shrugging, "So why go looking for Harry in the dorms during the Halloween Feast?"

"Maybe he was going to wait for him and kill him as he went to bed?" Daphne suggested.

"And attacking the painting to announce his presence fits into that plan, how exactly?" Xander asked sarcastically.

"Don't get snippy with me, Harris." She snapped back. "He's been in Azkaban for twelve years, his brain's probably addled."

"So addled he snuck through the line of Aurors and Dementors, then broke through Hogwarts Wards and made it to Gryffindor dorms without being seen? Only to blow it then?" Xander scoffed.

"Look, what do you care?" She rolled her eyes, "it's not like he's here for you."

Xander shrugged defensively, not willing to mention the book or the fact that he'd spent a summer learning all sorts of things from Black's avatar. "I just think it's weird is all."

"You are weird, Harris. Black is nuts. There's a difference." Daphne said with a flick of her hair as she turned away from him and headed for the girl's bedding pads a few yards away.

Xander sighed, taking a seat by the wall and drawing out his copy of the Grimoire. His fountain pen in hand he carefully noted the events of the day in one of the interactive sections, then entered a one word question.

Why?

* * *

What's this all about, Narcissa?" Rosmerta demanded in a hard voice when they were alone. "I don't like your reaction out there one bit."

"It's none of your concern, Rosmerta." Narcissa returned in an equal voice. "This is between me and Sirius."

"That... murderer... has no business with any decent human." Rose growled, "Something that, until now, I always believed you to be. Give me one reason why I shouldn't call the Aurors over here."

Narcissa's eyes glinted, the soft blue turning steel grey in an instant as her wand appeared in her hand, startling the tavern owner. "Because it would do you no good, and would likely cost you everything."

Rosmerta paled slightly, taking a step back. "Narciss... Cissy, why are you doing this? You've never been this sort..."

"This is a matter of blood, Rose." Narcissa said fiercely. "Intervene in my affairs and I will crush you."

Rosmerta swallowed as the ephemeral blond spun on her heel and strode out, leaving her to consider the words carefully. Narcissa was not joking, she knew that as a fact. Rose left the private room and looked outside for a moment, eyes falling on a passing Auror as her sense of propriety warred with her sense of self preservation.

Finally she stepped back, letting the door close, and mechanically went back to work.

There was nothing she could do against Narcissa Malfoy, and even less for the Aurors to do. There was no crime in being concerned for a relative, even a murderer. She had always thought that Narcissa detested her cousin, though?

* * *

The confusion reigned for that night, but by midway through the next day things were back to normal in the school. Xander's mind was still running in circles as the facts of reality clashed with everything written in his Grimoire, and he didn't like it. He was becoming distrustful of the book, and the contents within as his arguments with the Avatars went round and round.

Evans and Black would have screamed his eardrums bloody if they'd been able to, both insisting that it was IMPOSSIBLE for Black to have betrayed the Potters, let alone killed Peter Pettigrew. What made that even more confusing was the revelation that Evans was, in fact, Lilly Evans who became Lilly Potter, who supposedly died at the behest of Black himself.

Pettigrew was, along with Black and two others (including, Xander was becoming more certain, Remus Lupin) part of the Marauders.

All Xander knew for sure was that he was being lied to, and he didn't like it.

The intelligences locked in the book were of a limited sort, unfortunately, and that meant that they couldn't answer any of the more relevant questions he had, or had been specifically locked against revealing them. Xander had determinedly locked the book in his trunk when they had been permitted back into their rooms, against the vociferous objections of the book's inhabitants who were demanding more information.

Classes moved on, Snape taking over Defense for a few days and tearing into the Gryffindor's for Neville's crossdressing boggart. The next bit of excitement came when the Puffs won their match against Gryffindor on the pitch, largely because a whole group of Dementors had bolted across the field like the demon wraiths they apparently were, scaring the hell out of the school and nearly killing Harry.

As usual, he survived, but the loss of the match had shifted the balance in the scores pretty heavily, which had most of the Kittens looking downtrodden while Draco was puffed up like a marshmallow, strutting around like a peacock.

Xander just shook his head, listening to the whispers behind the boy's back. He wouldn't have looked so foolish if he had anything to do with it, but as it stood Draco just didn't seem to realize that he was making Harry look better and better with every strut.

After all, apparently Slytherin's seeker needed Dementors to take on Potter.

Xander just sighed and let it pass. He didn't understand the game anyway, so what did he care?

Soon it was time for the Hogsmeade visit.

* * *

Xander and Wednesday made their way into the small town with the group of students, all gleefully happy to be free of the castle for a few hours. The walk felt good, though it reminded Xander that he'd started to let his conditioning go again and would pay for it if he didn't find some time to exercise soon.

In the group of students he easily spotted Ron and Hermione as they made their way to town as well, but didn't attempt to approach the group. Tensions between the Gryffs and Snakes had ratcheted up again with Draco's nonsense, and Xander didn't feel like a confrontation with some kittens who didn't know enough to avoid a snake.

"Are you well?"

He was startled by the question, turning to Wednesday. "Why are you asking?"

"You've been sullen, withdrawn, and antisocial for the past week or more," She said, eyeing him intently, "Most unlike you. I was starting to think you were hopelessly... cheerful."

The way she spat the word made Xander laugh, which drew a disgusted look from her and he just shook his head. "I'm fine. Just had some heavy thinking to do lately."

"I see."

She didn't push it any further, and he didn't offer anything else, so the two made their way into town and browsed the candy shops, supplies, and general window shopping they were expected to do.

Xander nodded to Hermione when they saw her in Honeydukes, and she nodded back. She didn't look too happy herself, he noted, but he supposed that he shouldn't be surprised.

* * *

Ron spared a glance at the snake as he passed, "I don't know what you see in that guy."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "He only helped save your sister last year."

"Yeah, he's ok for a snake," Ron said grudgingly, "But still..."

"Honestly." She huffed, shaking her head.

"Leave her be, Ron. Xander's a good guy." Harry said tiredly from where he was standing under his cloak. "Anyway, like I was saying, the Twins gave me this map... it's called the Marauder's map..."

Hermione's eyes widened as she heard that name, looking at Harry's disembodied head in confusion. "What did you say?"


	52. Chapter 52

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After the Hogsmeade visit Xander turned his focus back to the Arithmantic work needed to construct the Marauder's map. It was both complex and simplistic in nature, since most of it was tied into the Protean Charm. The individual equations were easy enough to deal with, really they were simple addition and subtraction work since the Wizarding world hadn't yet gotten too deep into multiplication and division as far as Xander could tell.

It was weird, in a way, he thought. He had yet to find one single instance of multiplication or division in his Arithmancy books. Everything was add this, subtract that. The real complexities of Arithmancy seemed to be in the number selection, as there was a huge difference between three of something or four. In fact, from a magical point of view, you were almost always better off using three instead of four or five, even if logically the situation would seem to call for more quantity.

That bugged the hell out of him on one level, but mostly Xander just shrugged it off. He knew that there had to be something more to it than just what was in the books, but he supposed that it was in the more advanced courses offered later.

Certainly there was a LOT of power available in the simple addition and subtraction of magical numbers. In class they had broken down the Wingardium Leviosa spell from first year, analyzing its numerical formula. It was rather surprising to learn that the spell was just a long run of threes and sevens being added or subtracted in what looked suspiciously like a triple meter beat.

He'd brought that up in class, only to receive a strange look from the teacher and a sneer from some of Malfoy's sycophants in the row behind him. He just sighed and went back to work.

Music wasn't something Xander knew a lot about, but he'd taken some piano and guitar lessons in school and had even gotten some lessons with Willow when she learned to play the recorder and flute. He couldn't exactly read sheet music, but he could get a sense of the pace, and he was almost CERTAIN that the spell formulae was broken into a triple meter beat.

Tying the numbers into the incantation and wand motion was another aspect of the formulae that Xander found pretty cool, though. Well, actually, the term 'tying' was all wrong. He noticed immediately that the swish and flick motion was actually part of the base formula, and all charms would have similar base wand movements. The incantation, however, was a bit of a puzzle. He couldn't find any connection there at all, it was as if the words had nothing at all to do with the spell.

It was all terribly confusing, but at least Xander now felt like he was really at school. For a while there he had started to imagine he was just getting to play every day.

* * *

Hermione watched, eyes narrowing like a Hawk's before striking, as Xander worked on the next step in the making of the Marauder's Map.

How did he get the instructions for such a thing? Especially since Harry was now holding the original, or what she supposed was the original.

And just who were Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail? They had to be brilliant students, she thought, to have devised a map like this, but at the same time it was obvious that they were troublemakers on the order of which only the Weasley Twins seemed to approach.

It was all very distressing, Hermione found. She felt like she was caught between her two groups of friends, not able to tell either group about the other without betraying someone. She was distracted for a moment when she noticed Xander struggling with the Arithmantic formula for part of the map, and realized why it seemed to be so out of place.

"Xander, where's your Grimoire?" She asked.

Xander looked up, his face darkening. "I left it in my room."

"Why? You always bring it..."

"I just did, ok." He said, sharply enough to leave her feeling rebuked, so Hermione quieted down.

Wednesday looked between them, eyes glittering darkly as she measured the conversation but remained silent.

* * *

The fall term swung ever closer to an end, and Xander found himself looking forward to Christmas Hols since he knew he would be spending it with the Addamses again. He had, once more, offered to remain at Hogwarts but neither Wednesday nor Gomez would hear of it. Xander hadn't really expected much else, but felt the need to make the offer anyway.

Work on the map was progressing nicely, though it was a lot rougher without the help of the shade of Sirius Black and occasional answers from Narcissa Malfoy. Even so, Xander didn't want to bring the Grimoire out again, not until he knew he could trust it. With the constant fear of Black practically permeating the entire school, even Xander was feeling a lot of paranoia over the figure he'd originally considered a slight pain in the ass at most.

The end result of the paranoia, though, was a steep decline in Xander's capability to manage his 'fun' projects, and a lot more focus required on his school work. That, in turn, made the school work feel more and more like, well work, and left him feeling a little trapped by the drudgery of constant repetitions of the same little thing.

He was really looking forward to the upcoming Break.

* * *

Gomez and Mortisha Addams arrived in the town of Hogsmeade by car, the old Rolls silently appearing out of a fogbank and rolling smoothly down the cobblestone streets much to the shock of the town's populace.

"Isn't that one of them muggle carts?" Mundungus Fletcher drawled slightly as he looked out from his permanent seat in the Hogshead Tavern.

"Can't be." Aberforth Dumbledore said without looking up, "The whole town is under muggle repelling wards."

"Looks like one ter me."

Aberforth sighed, then turned and looked just in time to see the Rolls slide fully past. "My word. Was that a Silver Cloud?"

"No, that was a Cart, I'm telling ya."

Aberforth rolled his eyes and made his way to the door in time to confirm his thoughts. "Good lord, that car is worth more than... well much of the town, I believe. How on earth did it get here? We aren't even connected to the highway."

"What high way?" Fletcher asked, leaning out past him, and looking up as if peering for the way Aberforth was talking about.

The bar owner sighed, "never mind, Fletcher. Go back to your drink, the car must be enchanted so it's not muggles."

Fletcher shrugged and happily went back to his drinks.

* * *

Elsewhere in town the passage of the vehicle elicited many of the same reactions from the inhabitants of the town, confusion both from those who were aware of what it was, and even more so from those who weren't. At the far end of town one Narcissa Malfoy was tiredly finishing up what had become a near daily routine of Mutt Watching when the vehicle appeared from around a corner and nearly ran her down on its way past.

"Well I'll be!" She gasped, glaring at the departing muggle conveyance. "It's bad enough to deal with those blasted things in London, but what is one doing here!?"

She glowered after it for a while, but it was on its way up to Hogwarts and she couldn't muster up the indignation to chase after it. Frankly, she had her own problems to deal with, and careless fools in muggle toys weren't even remotely on her list of priorities.

* * *

"Quite a stir." Mortisha said, glancing out the back of the Rolls.

"Indeed!" Gomez grinned, slightly maniacal as he waved his cigar around. "They must recognize the Addams car and have come out to greet us. Wave to the nice people, Tish."

She waved dutifully, but frowned ever so slightly, "That blond woman doesn't seem to be the greeting type."

"Nonsense!" Gomez declared, "Why else would she have risked getting so close to the car as we passed by? Why Lurch almost run her down."

"True."

"Such nice people." Gomez marveled.

"Perhaps we should consider a home in the area?" Mortisha suggested.

"Capital idea, love. The weather is positively dreary in the fall, perfect holiday weather." Gomez said, "It might be nice to have a home in the Old World again."

Lurch, from the front, glanced back and droned out, "The School."

The couple looked ahead to see Hogwarts Castle approaching as they topped the hill.

"It's just such a..." Mortisha grimaced, "light and airy place for an old castle, don't you think? These are usually so wonderfully dreary."

"Ah, love, not everyone can have the comforts we enjoy," Gomez said sadly. "It's a truth of the world that injustice reigns."

"I know," She leaned into him, "but why must Wednesday endure this?"

"It builds character, love. You'll see."

The conversation was cut off when a dark, dank feeling of hopeless dread filled them, and the two Addamses exchanged glances briefly before Gomez leaned forward.

"Lurch! Stop the car!"

The Rolls slid to a stop, and Gomez was instantly out. "You feel that, Tish?"

"That's not natural," his wife said as she nodded, "Where...?"

"There!" Gomez pointed, noting the darkening form floating in their direction.

"Demons? Here?" Mortisha blinked.

"Dementor, unless I miss my guess." Gomez said, his face serious. "The locals keep them as prison guards on some island up the coast."

"So why are they here, at a school?"

"Some imbecile in government, I suppose. I can't imagine Mr. Dumbles allowing it, he's far too cheerful a sort to permit this, so it must be someone above him." Gomez didn't move as the demon approached.

"Oh dear," Mortisha said distastefully. "And with Wednesday around too."

"Yes well, we'll see about this." Gomez just barely grunted out, his demeanor changing as he suddenly glared at the demon as it approached, the feeling of chilled air increasing tenfold.

The Dementor paused, hitching in mid-flight, and then dropped like a stone to the ground where it crumped and didn't move again.

Gomez smirked, "Still got it."

"Of course you do, Mon Cher."

The serious demeanor was gone in an instant as Gomez spun around, eyes wide as he stared at his wife.

"Tish! That's French!"

Lurch only moaned as Gomez vaulted across the priceless automobile, grabbed his wife's arm, and began to pepper her with kisses.


	53. Chapter 53

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The last feast before the Hols was well underway when the doors to the Great Hall opened and three figures strode in.

"Mr. Stumbles! I would have a word with you!" The lead said, loud enough for the entire school to hear.

"I believe it's Dumbles, Hon."

"Is it?" The man looked confused, "How odd. Never mind that anyway, Just why is the school ringed by demons?"

The murmuring of the feast fell away as the man's question rang out clearly, causing Headmaster Dumbledore to rise.

"Mr. Addams, I presume you mean the Dementors?" He asked with a genial sort of gesture, "I'm afraid that while I am able to prevent their encroachment on school grounds, the Ministry has decreed their presence beyond."

"There, I told you, Tish," Gomez shook his head.

"You did, Dear." She agreed.

"Surrounding a school with demons is stupidity of the highest order, Mr. Dumbles." Gomez ground out as he, Morticia, and Lurch strode up the hall. "It's a miracle they haven't hurt anyone."

Half the school looked over to where Harry was sitting, causing him to shrink from the attention.

"I assure you, the safety of the children is paramount." Dumbledore said seriously.

"Says the man who left an insane basilisk to run loose in his school last year," Gomez rolled his eyes, "not that I have anything against keeping pets, Mr. Dumbles, but obviously you don't know how to tend them."

"Mr. Addams," Dumbledore said with a put upon sigh, "I assume you're here to pick up young Wednesday and Alexander?"

"Of course I am, man, but stay on subject."

"I know that you're also aware that parents are supposed to pick up their children and charges in London." Dumbledore said tiredly. "This is so as to avoid disrupting the school."

"You have DEMONS surrounding your school and I'm the one disrupting things?" Gomez looked over at Morticia, confused, "Is he insane or am I?"

"Why not both?" She asked lightly.

"True." Gomez admitted with a sudden grin. "May I enquire as to why..."

His question was lost in the clatter as the doors to the Hall burst open again, this time revealing a contingent of Aurors with wands drawn, being followed closely by a chubby man in a bowler hat.

"Where is he!?" The man demanded, "We're here, children, it's safe now! Where is Black!?"

Dumbledore sank in his chair, shaking his head, "Minister Fudge, so pleasant to see you. Are you here for a reason?"

"Don't play with me, Dumbledore! Where is Black!?" Fudge demanded.

"What makes you think that Sirius Black is here?" Dumbledore asked, honestly curious.

"We found a Dementor just outside the grounds," A tall black Auror said crisply as he and the others carefully covered the room. "Or, we found what was left of it."

Murmurs filled the room and Dumbledore straightened up, "Left of it? Explain."

"It was dead, or as close to it as I've ever seen in a Dementor," The Auror said calmly.

"Yes, yes, Black is a dangerous one, now where is he!?" Fudge interrupted. "He must be making his move and..."

"Oh that," Gomez said calmly as he leaned on the Ravenclaw table and picked at some of the food in front of his daughter, "That was me."

The Aurors spun to look at him, about half of them covering him with their wands.

"You!?" Fudge sputtered. "Impossible! Who are you anyway?"

Gomez grimaced as he tasted a sip of pumpkin juice, setting the goblet down with distaste. "Gomez Addams. And you?"

"A... Addams you say?" Fudge faltered, staring at him.'

"Precisely, now why were demons stationed around the school?" Gomez asked lightly.

"They're hunting a dangerous fugitive," Fudge blustered.

"Who?"

"Sirius Black, of course!"

"Black?" Gomez looked thoughtful, "Where have I heard that name from?"

"The paper, dear," Morticia said lightly from where she was standing, "The escaped prisoner?"

"Oh yes! The very man!" Gomez snapped his fingers, "Escaped from Azkaban, right?"

"Exactly!"

"And you set Dementors on his trail."

"Precisely!"

"So, just so I understand things," Gomez went on, "You set Dementors to hunt down a man who's already proven that he knows how to escape from them."

"Exac... wait, no, I mean..." Fudge blinked, thinking furiously.

"Indeed." Gomez pushed off the table, turning to look at his daughter. "Are you ready, my dear? I thought we may get an early jump on things."

"Of course, Father." Wednesday said simply, folding her napkin and setting it aside as she rose up.

"Alexander?"

"All set." Xander said, rising as well. "Just need to get my trunk."

"Splendid, we'll be about that then, shall we?"

The two children nodded and as a group they made to leave the hall.

"Hold on just a moment!" Fudge blustered. "You attacked and destroyed property of the ministry, that's a serious charge and..."

Gomez turned on him, his jovial tone gone and a dead sounding one in its place. "There are no laws in any country on this entire world that protect demonic entities from destruction, Fudge. Try to get one passed, and you'll learn why the Addams name is feared."

Then, in an instant, the dead sounding tone was gone and Gomez smiled at the two children with him. "Come along then, time to go. We have a wonderful place for the holidays this year..."

Then they were gone, leaving the Minister, The Aurors, the students, and the professors staring in stunned shock at their wake.

"Minister, Auror Shacklbolt, if I may ask... how did the Dementor die?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

Shacklbolt looked over at him, then back at where the Addams had been, "Looked like it starved to death, Headmaster."

* * *

They retrieved their trunks quickly and Gomez led them out of the school to where the Silver Cloud awaited. Xander had to pause for a moment at the incongruity of the car sitting against the backdrop of Hogwarts, then smiled as he shook his head and moved forward.

"Really, demons at a school. What's next?" Gomez shook his head, "The world has no sense of balance, Tish. If it's not those horrible fairytales with Knights killing poor defenseless dragons, it's allowing demons within striking range of children."

Xander had to admit, the comment about poor defenseless dragons seemed more in keeping with the Addamses he knew. Though Wednesday had also voiced her displeasure with the presence of the Dementors as well, so he wasn't sure.

They stowed their trunks away in the boot, and piled into the surprisingly roomy back of the car, with four people and two familiars. Xander shifted oddly, noting that the car was tilted heavily toward the passengers' side of the old car, and was about to comment on it when Lurch settled into the drivers' seat and the car instantly evened out.

He glanced over his shoulder at the large, man he supposed, then shivered a little and let it pass.

"Uh, Sir, what's so bad about Dementors?" He asked, however. "I mean, other than the obvious. You don't seem to have a problem with Werewolves, vampires, and all those..."

Xander shifted uncomfortably as they stared at him, and was about to say something else when Gomez spoke up.

"Hardly the same thing, lad." He said, "There is a difference between magical beasts and demonic ones. We Addamses have no truck with demons, they're not to be trusted and certainly not to be permitted within range of children."

"They are unnatural." Wednesday supplied.

"Precisely!" Gomez seized on the comment. "You can feel it when you're around them, if you listen carefully to your instincts. Demons are the antithesis of everything we stand for on this world, they live only to destroy."

"Gomez, darling," Morticia put a calming hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure that Alexander doesn't understand, and you know how bad misinformation can be."

Gomez sighed, "Yes, yes, of course. Demons, my boy, are not from this world. That's one of the key points about them. They're not even from a world remotely like this one. Please, don't misunderstand me here, we Addamses don't expect others to believe as we do but there are some things we hold to be self-evident. One of those things is that you don't make deals with those who would destroy you."

"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc." Wednesday said calmly.

"Not just pretty words." Morticia smiled.

"Exactly." Gomez said with a flourish of his cigar.

Xander's Latin had, as a matter of necessity, gotten fairly decent over the past three years but he had to struggle a bit to place the phrase.

We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.

Xander cringed, "Family motto?"

"Yes." Wednesday said with a hint of a predatory smile. "Now imagine what we do to those who would destroy us?"

* * *

"How on Earth did that... man..." McGonagall said, obviously using the term lightly. "Kill a Dementor?"

Dumbledore sighed, shaking his head, "I'm afraid I have no idea. The Addamses are an old family line, with possibly thousands of years of family magic to draw on. Additionally, they don't blink at interbreeding with many... beings... that we would consider abhorrent."

"Obviously they draw the line at Dementors." The Head of Gryffindor said dryly in return.

Dumbledore nodded, "thankfully so. The family has long held an active state of open warfare with what they term demonic species."

"What they term?"

"Their definition varies somewhat from most accepted scholars," Dumbledore admitted tiredly. "So it's not easy to say precisely what species they will, or won't, accept without prior experience."

"Lovely." Minerva sighed, "I suppose we should be glad that it was only a Dementor that was harmed, then."

"Far be it for me to wish harm on any creature," Dumbledore sighed, "But I do wish Cornelius would remove the Dementors from the area. They are causing far more trouble than they're worth."

"Why don't you oppose him in the Wizengamot, Albus?"

"That would not be a productive use of my efforts at the moment, Minerva."


	54. Chapter 54

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Toledo, Castilla La Mancha, Spain.

The Rolls Royce Silver Cloud rolled silently out of the fog bank, slowing to a crawl as Gomez looked fondly, and eagerly, out at the passing countryside.

"Welcome to my home." He said cheerfully, nodding ahead of them.

Xander turned in his seat, looking up the winding road to see a foreboding castle in the distance. It looked hard and dark, a gloom surrounding it even in the bright Spanish sunlight, and he had to admit that it was most certainly an Addams building.

"Castle Addams." Gomez said, almost sounding serene for a moment. "Oh the times we had here, such wonderful times."

"Gomez, darling, we should return more often."

"Right you are, Tish," Gomez sighed, "But we have our responsibilities at home."

"Of course," She said simply, "We are Addamses. Even so, if Wednesday is to be part of the magical world, perhaps we should extend our influences again."

"Maybe you're right, my love." Gomez said thoughtfully, then shook off the pensive nature of his thoughts and smiled again, "For now though, let us enjoy the holidays in true Addams style."

"But of course, mon coeur." Morticia responded.

"Tish! That's French!"

* * *

Castle Addams was a huge affair, in horrible disrepair from what Xander could see but the family seemed to love it as it was. As they approached the gates they were greeted by an ethereal blond woman whose hair seemed to flow against the wind with an eerie motion.

"Marietta!" Gomez crowed, spreading his arms wide as the woman grinned in return and stepped into the embrace. "It's been too long!"

"Hello Dear Gomez," Mariette said with a smile, "Welcome back to Castle Addams."

"Wednesday, you remember your aunt Marietta," Gomez said with a smile.

"Hello Aunt Marietta," Wednesday said with a calm look, subtly jabbing Xander in the side as he stared at the woman, in a daze.

He grunted in pain and blinked as the fog lifted from his mind, looking around in confusion.

"And who is this strapping young buck?" Marietta asked with a sly smile.

"This is Alexander Harris," Gomez said cheerfully, "A friend of Wednesday's from school. Alexander, Meet Marietta Addams."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Ma'am." She chuckled, "None of that here, young man. I am Marietta to you, all of you."

"Of course." Morticia said softly, smiling faintly as she and the others walked onto the ground.

Xander was shaking his head slightly, rubbing his temples, "What was that?"

"Marietta is a Xanas." Wednesday said softly, "distantly related to the Norwegian Veela, they have similar charms."

Xander frowned, remembering only a little about the Veela from somewhere.

"They can enthrall men," Wednesday explained as they began to walk after the family.

"Can they ever." Xander muttered, earning himself a dark look from his friend. "Hey, I'm just saying. That was plain creepy."

"Wasn't it though?" A hint of a smile played at Wednesday's lips, then she turned away from him and began to walk ahead.

Xander watched her for a moment, then groaned as he knew that he had failed some sort of test. "It's gonna be some holiday."

* * *

The initial rush of meeting the Castillo branch of the Family Addams faded away as the holidays moved on, though Xander had to admit that they were every bit as memorable as the American branch of the family.

Hernandez Addams, the Castillian Patriarch was frightening reflection of Gomez. Moody where Gomez was cheerful, the man seemed older than his looks suggested and moved like he had something sitting on his shoulders. Nevertheless he had greeted his guests with gusto, then almost instantly challenged Gomez to a fencing duel that raged across the entire castle while the rest of them settled down to dinner.

His wife, Marietta, was almost the antithesis of Addams. Light fairy hair that blew in the absence of wind, a cheerful pleasant personality that seemed to hold none of the darker aspects of the rest of the family, and a genuine earnest love of everyday things like the perfect rose blossoms that took up the center of the dining room table. The one thing that marked her as an Addams, in Xander's opinion, was that eerie charm she wielded without even thinking about it.

Xander had managed to acclimate himself a little to the food the Addamses ate, enough so that he was able to pick at the food without worrying about going hungry until he found a MacDonald's, or the local equivalent.

Marietta noticed, but only smiled slightly and pushed some of the more normally accepted foods in his direction as she leaned over to avoid the sweep of her husband's blade.

"Come back here, you laze-about!" Hernandez yelled, chasing Gomez around the table.

"Never!" Gomez grinned, planting a foot on the table and vaulting up to the chandelier, hooking his legs in it and hanging upside down as he fended off his cousin's attacks.

He twisted there for a while, casually parrying sweeps of Hernandez' blade, then abruptly curled up and somersaulted off the chandelier to land squarely in the center of the table, feet planted on either side of a bubbling gravy mix.

"Alexander, my boy! You're up!" Gomez said, dropping his sword in Xander's direction.

Xander's eyes bugged as he caught the sword on reflex. "What!?"

Gomez flipped off the table, landing in his chair, and began helping himself to a meal. "I'd duck if I were you, lad."

Xander ducked.

The Toledo Steel blade swept over his head, right about neck level, and Xander didn't stop. He rolled to the right as the blade reversed and swept down through the back of his chair.

"Footwork Lad!" Gomez called as Xander scrambled across the floor, "Footwork!"

"I..." Xander gasped, narrowly avoiding a slash.

"Have to..." He threw up his blade, deflecting a lunge over his head.

"Get to my..." He rolled, narrowly ducking a follow up strike.

"Feet first!" he finished, twisting his sword around and driving the point of Hernandez' blade into the floor between his knees. Xander immediately locked it in place with a twist of his blade, preventing the Castillian from moving his own blade.

"Good show lad!" Gomez smirked, "but uh... look down."

Xander frowned, blinking, then looked down to grimace as he found Hernandez' had his Main Gauche just fractions of an inch from Xander's groin. He shuddered and carefully stepped back, letting go of the blade.

"Good reflexes, but your form is atrocious." Hernandez said calmly as he took Xander's sword, then threw both of them casually aside one after another.

They were caught, in turn, by a disembodied hand and thrown back up on the wall where they had come from with an ease that spoke of practice.

"I don't get a lot of chance to practice..." Xander gasped out, resisting the urge to pat his crotch down to ensure everything was still there.

"We only began his lessons last Christmas," Gomez spoke up while he ate. "We'll be continuing them, of course."

Xander nodded dumbly.

"Good lad." Hernandez said seriously, taking his seat at the head of the table. "Bladework is the fundament of a strong and balanced life."

"I don't know that I'd go that far," Gomez said with a smirk. "But it certainly is a fun way to pass the time."

"You never take anything seriously." Hernandez scowled at his cousin.

"Of course not," Gomez returned, "What's the point of that? Sucks all the fun out of life."

* * *

Fester and Pugsley arrived at Castle Addams a couple days later, flushed from their excursion to Bosnia.

"Bosnia?" Xander just had to ask. "What were you doing there?"

"Sweeping mine fields." Fester grinned widely. "Great fun."

"Yeah, it was AWESOME." Pugsley affirmed. "Uncle Fester must have flown fifty meters when he set off that anti-tank mine!"

"Those suckers are hard to detonate," Fester said, shaking his head. "I must have jumped up and down on that for five minutes."

Xander sat down slowly, rubbing his temple.

Honestly, he was sorry he asked, but he was also really, really curious about the details.

* * *

The Holidays were pleasant, though, as the weather remained beautiful in the area, much to the Addams' frustration. Xander spent his time fencing with Gomez and Hernandez, reading his RPG books, and playing with Wednesday and Pugsley. Though the third one was by far the most dangerous activity he'd experienced yet, and he was including the Chamber of Secrets in that list.

He quickly learned to avoid certain games, like 'Innocent Sacrifice' and 'Condemned Man'. When games involving electrocution and decapitation came up, Xander begged off to read.

That, of course, attracted Wednesday's interest and she cornered him quickly to ask about his material.

"They're game books." He said, "Role Playing Games, basically stuff written by people who like to pretend they can use magic."

A twinkling hint of amusement showed in her expression, and Wednesday sat down beside him. "Are they helpful?"

"There are some interesting ideas," Xander admitted, "I'm reading about Technomancy right now."

"I haven't heard of that, but I can guess what it means." Wednesday frowned, "Does it exist?"

"Yeah, a little," Xander said, pulling out a reference book he'd bought in Three Angels. "It's kind of a matter of definition, though, I guess. People have been charming cars to run on magic for, well, as long as there have been cars."

"I know, our car works that way."

Xander nodded, unsurprised. "Right, anyway, that could be considered Technomancy I guess. It worked well right up until microchips started showing up in everything."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, magic makes them stop working." Xander said, frowning, "The newer ones anyway. Some of the older ones were charmed successfully. But even they weren't reliable."

"What's the difference?"

"I'm not sure." Xander had to admit. "Whatever it is, it's pretty clear though... anything electronic is REALLY hard, if not impossible, to charm."

"Curious."


	55. Chapter 55

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

As was 'normal' with the Addamses, the days passed in swift, if often disjointed and bizarre, fashion. They spent some time in the castle, but also got out to visit the local magical community in Toledo, the Villa Del Brujas, or Witches Street. It was probably about twice the size of Diagon, Xander decided as he walked through the crowded plaza, everyone making room for them as people recognized Marietta Addams.

That was something he was getting used to, the Addams name carried far but where they were recognized by sight it was otherworldly how fast people got out of their way. Xander wondered if it was like that for Gomez and Morticia in America?

Witches Street was much like Diagon in what it had to offer, though Xander noticed a couple smithy shops and the like with swords on display, as well as some items he'd never seen before like a Magic Carpet shop. He paused in front of that one, checking out the advertisements.

Family Carpet, Flies Six!

Racing Carpet, Hundred and Twenty mile per hour top end!

And so on, as he looked.

"Interested, young master?"

Xander looked up, startled as the owner of the shop approached. "Uh, no I don't think so. I'm just surprised, I've never seen a flying carpet before."

The man looked at him quizzically, "American?"

Xander nodded.

"Odd, from what I understand America imports carpets for recreation purposes."

"I don't have a lot to do with the magical community there, yet," Xander admitted, "I've been schooled at Hogwarts."

"Ah, well that explains it." The man said with a chuckle, "Unlike America, Britain has a ban on carpet imports under their Muggle Items laws."

"Yeah? Weird."

"Not especially. The Nimbus Broom company is based in Britain, and they have friends in the Wizengamot and Ministry," The man explained, "Carpets were cutting into their business. In America no one uses brooms or carpets enough to matter. They're not really useful for transport when people can live hundreds of miles apart or more, so in larger countries like America they're really just used for sport and hobby."

"Oh." Xander nodded, "You know, I'm not surprised that carpets were biting into broom sales. I don't really love the whole broom experience myself."

The salesman chuckled, "Let me guess, robes bunch up on you?"

"Yeah. What is up with that anyway?" Xander asked, "I mean, I thought I was doing something wrong, but..."

"No, no," The man assured him. "Let me guess though, American Broom?"

"Yeah..." Xander said, confused.

"Thought so. You see the comfort charms are different on European Models, and since you have a British instructor on flying... well, you've learned the wrong grip."

"You're kidding me." Xander blurted, eliciting a chuckle.

"I'm afraid not, get a hand book from your Broom company, it should explain the differences."

"Thanks."

"No problem, young man," The salesman smiled, "I love to talk flying. However, I believe I see a customer, so I must bid you a farewell."

Xander said bye to the man and moved on down the street, thinking about what he'd been told. He stopped again by a smithy, and began to examine the swords and shorter blades on display. A barrel shaped man noticed him and moved around a huge anvil in his direction.

"May I help you, young sir?"

"I'm just looking for now," Xander admitted, "Though I'm thinking that I may like to buy a blade soon."

The man grunted, sizing Xander up. "You carry one now."

Xander looked at him sharply, "How did...?"

"Right boot, outside edge, under your pant legs. I can see it in how you walk."

Xander nodded slowly, impressed. He'd received the blade from his uncle two years earlier, but had only received permission to carry it toward the end of the previous summer. Xander thought that Sam was being a little paranoid, but he'd gotten in the habit of planting the blade in his boot every morning.

"May I?"

Xander nodded and kneeled down, drawing out the Fairbairn Sykes dagger from its sheath and casually flipped it over and handed it to the smith pommel first.

The man took it, glancing it over with a grunt and handed it back. "Muggle made, mass produced. Adequate."

"I'm still learning," Xander said with an easy grin, "I wouldn't know a great blade from a piece of junk, but my uncle said this would serve well enough."

"He's right, it's an adequate design." The smith affirmed, turning to a wall with a lot of blades mounted on it. "This, however, is a real weapon."

Xander accepted the blade from him and twisted it over in his hand. It was about the same length as his own dagger, with a wider blade and beveled point that gave it a more elegant look. The blade itself was mottled with dark patterns, and its polished gold pommel and rope wrapped grip gave it a practical but artistic look.

"Very nice." Xander admitted.

"Damascus Steel recipe, Toledo Steel workmanship," The man said simply, but with a certain pride in his voice. "The muggles lost the ability to make that material centuries ago when the Persian Ministry finally agreed to sign with the ICW in 1704. It won't dull, it won't break, and unlike your blade it'll hold an enchantment if you're interested in that sort of thing."

Xander nodded, handing the blade back. "I'm impressed. Do you make swords the same way?"

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy tiredly sank into her chair, wearily activating the lamps with a wave of her hand as she considered the situation.

On the plus side, her idiot cousin hadn't gotten himself caught yet.

That was about the only thing that seemed to be going in her favor at the moment, however. Fudge, the imbecile, was increasing Dementor security around the school in response to Sirius' encroachments in the fall.

There would soon be over a hundred of the blasted things infesting the area, and frankly she was beginning to be afraid for the children, her Draco most of all. She was no expert on the beasts, of course, there were few if any outside the Department of Mysteries that could make that claim, but she knew that they weren't exactly the most discerning of beasts and they had already broken through the outer wards of the school.

Fudge swore up and down that it was an aberration and wouldn't happen again, but that was no more or less than she expected of the idiot. She was disappointed in her husband, however, for backing the Minister on this subject. The man she'd married wasn't this STUPID.

Narcissa growled, driving her elbow into the chair in a small fit of pique. She was so CLOSE to doing something she had given up on ever being able to accomplish, and not only was that little TOAD of a Minister standing in her way, but he was also risking her only Son's safety in the process.

It was infuriating!

* * *

Francis Hardy sighed, weary by the complications he was dealing with. This whole exchange idea had sounded like a lark when it was presented to him, a way to travel a bit while keeping his tenure track. He had three students in Beauxbatons, all from Quebec, everything ran smoothly there. There were two in Durmstrang, siblings from a second generation German American family, and everything ran smoothly there although he had to make some hard points concerning their Dark Arts program.

Hogwarts, however, was a yearly headache.

First, he didn't even know why the hell they had anyone there. The blasted course load was antiquarian, which made things all the tougher on the students. The Addams girl didn't surprise him all that much, not any more than anything else at any rate. She was an Addams, after all. Why the Harris lad was there, though, was a real pain.

First it was just a simple matter of following the Addams girl, Hardy suspected. But this year the Harris family had swung some of their weight around, keeping the boy in Hogwarts when a few people wanted to try and convince him to go to Salem.

He was showing some real promise, that one. His little potions accident was fast tracked to being a multi-billion dollar invention, and he was showing hints that maybe it wasn't entirely a freak accident. The Headmaster at Salem wanted to bring him in to an easier program, where he wouldn't have to do twice the work of his peers to make up for below par education in classes like Defence, History, and Potions.

The school had the best Charms and Transfiguration programs in the world, as long as you didn't count a few dedicated apprenticeships and the like, but it hardly made up for the shortfalls in the other core programs.

Getting Harris into a better balanced program should bring his marks up significantly, and give them a chance to see if he needed any special help in certain areas. As it was he was holding on with respectable grades in most areas, but Hardy knew the boy could do better.

And now this idiocy with the Dementors.

Honestly.

Who put soul sucking monsters around a Franklin be Damned SCHOOL?

Hardy suspected that it was a simple budgetary decision on Fudge's part, of course. Aurors wanted to be paid, Dementors just wanted to suck people's souls out. No brainer there.

Literally a no brainer, Hardy was starting to think.

He sighed, rereading the official complain Gomez Addams had placed with the American Ministry and the ICW concerning the whole affair. They had no authority to tell the brits to do anything, but the potential for outrage at home was turning into a fiasco on its own. He didn't even want to THINK about what would happen if one of the kids were attacked.

Briefly he toyed with the idea of teaching them the Patronus Charm, but he had decided against it.

The Patronus was useful, but really it was nothing more than pissing in the wind when you were dealing with more than one Dementor. They things were no geniuses, but they knew enough to split up and attack from two directions at once. So even if he succeeded in teaching two underage children an incredibly difficult and, frankly, nearly useless charm it wouldn't likely do them much good.

So Hardy found himself in nightly meetings arguing with the likes of Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore over the life and safety of two of his charges.

One way or another, though, he wasn't going to let those two bastards stonewall him on this.

Perhaps it was time to bring Arthur in on it, though. He knew Dumbledore personally and may be able to convince the man to bend a little.


	56. Chapter 56

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Christmas came quickly, Xander's days being occupied with exploring, studying, but mostly dodging the Addams' siblings 'games'. Honestly he wasn't sure how the duo survived some of the stunts they pulled off, but he was far from confident that he would be able to do the same, so he did his best to stay out of the way when they started playing games that civilized nations didn't inflict on their worst criminals.

Of course that brought some attention to him as well.

"Aren't you having fun, dear?" Morticia asked him one morning when she found him reading and most certainly NOT hiding from Wednesday's latest 'Game Storm', which involved lethal injection and fire ants.

"I'm great, Mrs. Addams." Xander assured her, "I just like to read, that's all."

Back in Sunnydale Willow flinched as a deep chill ran along her spine, and Jessie jumped as if spooked.

"Please, it's Morticia." The elegant, though dark, lady said with a knowing smile. "Are Wednesday and Pugsley's games not to your liking?"

"They're a little more... risky than I'm used to," Xander said with a grin, "But that's ok. I really do like to read, now anyway."

"Now?" Morticia asked, taking a seat beside him as Pugsley tore into the room, most of his clothes eaten through and a large army of red ants chasing him. "But not before?"

Xander tore his eyes away from the direction the Addams heir had gone, looking at Morticia, "That didn't concern you at all?"

"Boys will be boys." She said airily, then raised an eyebrow as Wednesday funeral marched through the room after her brother, a huge needle in hand. "And Wednesday will be Wednesday."

"And the kids at school wonder why no one in Ravenclaw bothers her." Xander shuddered. "Only the Gryffindor's are stupid, I mean 'brave', enough to take a shot at Wednesday."

"Oh? Does my little darling have some lion admirers?" Morticia asked with a hint of a smile.

"Not living ones." Xander said dryly.

"Marvelous."

Xander couldn't help but smile a little as he shook his head. He had gotten somewhat used to the Addams sensibilities, or at least what they put forward for public consumption, but it still amused him every time he experienced it. He wasn't actually convinced that the Addamses were really any different than anyone else, really, Xander often suspected that they just wanted everyone to THINK they were different.

Pugsley rolled back into the room, covered in ants and screaming as Wednesday liberally sprinkled him with steak sauce.

Ok, they may be a little different.

* * *

Christmas day with the Addams was about as close to normal as Xander ever saw them act. That morning they settled down like any other family, surrounded by decorated skulls and even more disturbing paraphernalia, and just spent time with each other.

It was almost picture perfect.

Ok, so the picture was a little twisted, but hey Xander had spent some of his past holiday's outside in the yard cause he didn't want to hear his parents scream at each other. No matter how twisted, there was purity in the familial love that the Addams held that beat that hands down.

Idly, Xander wondered if his parents still screamed at each other on Christmas, or if the reintroduction to the magical world had begun to heal the fractures they'd endured. He would have to spend a Christmas at home soon, he decided. Just to know.

The Gifts of the morning were what Xander had come to expect, from the disarmingly innocent (and generally deceptively lethal, to the bizarre and horrifying. Xander had received a long rapier from Gomez, on that looked as old as the castle they were in, and some assorted bits of explosives, chemicals, and components for his projects from the rest of the family. He had to gape at most of it in awe because, unlike the trunks from last year, Xander knew exactly how much the materials cost and furthermore how hard it would be for him to acquire any of it and he was stunned.

"My god." He choked, "This is..."

"Don't you like it?" Morticia asked softly, "Wednesday made several strange suggestions, but she generally knows about such things..."

"It's... incredible. Are those..." Xander hesitated, "Dragon heartstrings?"

"Indeed. Poor thing," Morticia sighed, "Poachers chased it onto Addams land a few months ago, along with its Pride. By the time the family had finished... harvesting... the poachers, well this one had died of its wounds. Valiant creature, however, it defended its fellows with its life."

"Thank you." Xander croaked, mind still almost blank. "I..."

He just shook his head, still stunned.

He wasn't the only one to be stunned, mind you. As the gifts continued to be passed around Xander's gifts to the family were opened. They were mostly small things, such as a poisonous black rose Xander had managed to get Neville Longbottom to smuggle out of the school greenhouse for him, the cutting had survived and was now growing strong again, much to Morticia's delight.

"Hear now, boy, that's my wife you're charming!" Gomez chuckled, grinning widely as he slid his cigar back into his mouth.

Morticia rolled her eyes as Xander blushed, but didn't comment as she cooed to the budding rose plant.

Fester and Pugsley got a binary gift of potion flasks that left them confused until Xander suggested they mix them. The ensuing explosion blew both of them out of the room, leaving Gomez black with soot with a smoking stub of a cigar in his teeth as Xander dropped the Protego protecting himself, Wednesday, and Morticia.

"Good show." He complimented the boy, grinning through the soot, "How far do you suppose they flew?"

"Probably back into the snakepit, if I aimed it right." Xander deadpanned.

"And you said you didn't like to play Addams' games," Morticia said with a soft smile.

"No, I said they were a little riskier than I was used to."

She nodded, but held an amused glint in her eye as the Christmas ritual continued.

Gomez was the next to stop as he opened his own gift from Xander and stared. "My boy..."

He numbly drew out a blade in the rapier style he preferred, noting the distinctive mottling of the metal that told him it was Damascus steel and unconsciously whipped it through the air a couple times to test its weight.

Near perfection.

He snapped it to the left, flat of the blade curling around his waist slightly as he caught the tip behind his back and drew it the rest of the way around, holding the sword like a belt around his waist, tip the pommel in the front. Then with a snap he let it go and the blade snapped back straight and true and he stared at it.

"It's beautiful." He said, noting the Addams coat of arms on the hand guard.

Xander smiled, "I'm glad you like it. Figuring out what to get the family who has everything they want, well that's tough."

Gomez smiled again, suddenly, "It's marvelous my boy, simply marvelous."

Morticia clapped her hands slightly, "That said, it's time to eat."

* * *

The Hols moved by quickly after that, and before long it was time to return to school.

They loaded into the car, as they had arrived, and drove off into the mist that seemed to grow up to meet them.

A time later, Xander wasn't sure how long they had been driving through the mist, they broke out into the small town of Hogsmeade and glided to a stop near Madame Rosmerta's. Gomez ushered them all inside to where Wednesday and Xander saw Professor Hardy waiting as he sipped on a bottle of butterbeer.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Addams, children." he nodded, setting the bottle down.

"Professor." Xander and Wednesday chorused, drawing a smirk.

"Mr. Hardy," Gomez said seriously, "Do you have them?"

He nodded, retrieving a couple hatpins from his pocket. He handed one to Xander and one to Wednesday. Xander looked at his, noting that it proclaimed his love of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team with some amusement. Wednesday looked at her LA Lakers pin with substantially less, however.

"What are these?" She asked disdainfully.

"Portkeys," Hardy answered, "They're one way tickets out of Hogwarts wards, straight to the Magical Receiving Zone of the American Embassy in London."

The two children blinked in surprise, but gave the pins slightly more interest.

"They're only to be used in an emergency," Hardy warned, "but if something happens, like those Dementors get on the property again, then don't hesitate. Pull the pin apart, then you have about two seconds before it and anything touching it is dropped right in the MRZ. Don't draw your wand when you arrive, and if you already have it out, drop it on the ground. The Marines there are squibs, and they don't have a sense of humor."

They both nodded.

Hardy knew he was overdoing it with that warning, the Marines were diplo protection people and were used to all sorts of folks arriving at the MRZ, but just the same they would react badly to a drawn wand so it was better to have the kids be careful. During darker times, like the last war with Voldemort, the MRZ had been staffed by members of the Pride, not squib marines, and the reception to a drawn wand in those days was a lot cooler.

"Now like I said, those are emergency use only," He stressed again, "it took a lot of work to get those for you, and your headmaster had to create them himself. Don't play with them, wear them all the time, and be careful ok?"

"We will." The two said.

"Good. We'll meet for our first class of the session in a week. We'll be working on Chemistry and Physics. Prepare yourselves."

"Yes Sir."

Hardy stood up, nodding to the Addams. "Mr. Addams, Mrs. Addams."

"Thank you for your help, Professor." Morticia said serenely.

"It's my job," he replied wryly, "I'm glad I could help."

* * *

Xander and Wednesday found Hermione in a funk when they arrived back in the council, the bushy haired girl was sitting alone at their usual table in the library. She looked depressed and more than slightly frazzled as they split around her and sat down on either side.

"What's wrong?"

Xander winced slightly, noting that tact was not really Wednesday's forte.

"Nothing."

Wednesday merely nodded, "Alright."

Oh for. Xander sighed, pinching his nose, "We can tell something's wrong, Hermione."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"What happened with Harry and Ron?" Xander asked, sighing.

"How do you know...?"

"It hardly takes a genius," Wednesday spoke up, "You are rarely affected deeply by anything else."

Hermione crumbled then and spilled the whole sordid tale of Harry getting an expensive broom for Christmas and how she'd told the Professors about it and it had been taken away to be examined.

Xander winced, but shook his head, "Yeah, I can see that causing some friction."

"It could have been from Sirius Black!" Hermione defended herself.

"Hey, not arguing." Xander held up his hands, "But you know, Harry? He's not real big on self-preservation, remember? Anyway, I doubt Black would try anything like that so don't worry about it, he'll get the broom back."

Hermione looked at him narrowly, "What makes you say that?"

"If Black tampered with Harry's broom it would probably be to make it fly into the girl's showers or something," Xander said dryly, "That man had a real weird sense of humor."

"And how would you know this?" Wednesday looked up with an arcing eyebrow.

Xander scowled a little, shrugging, "Black had a hand in writing the Grimoire."

Hermione's eyes widened, "Xander! You have to tell the Headmaster!"

"Why would I do that? That book was written years before he turned on the Potters," Xander said, then shrugged, "if he turned on the Potters."

"What do you mean, IF?"

"Look, no offense to you since your British and all, but what I've seen of the local government doesn't really instill me with confidence. They locked up Hagrid last year on no evidence, helped toss Dumbles out of the school when, frankly, we needed every wand we could get in here..." Xander muttered, "I mean really, they threw the most powerful wizard alive OUT of the school and locked US in here with the freaking SNAKE. Does this make sense to anyone?"

Hermione had leaned back, her face shocked at Xander hissing outburst.

He didn't wait for an answer, "And now this year Sirius Black escapes from the Azka-whatsit place, so they think it's a good idea to turn Hogwarts into New Azkaban. No offense, Herms, but you Brits are nuts. Frankly, I think we'd have been safer if they just locked the prisoners in here instead of sending us the Guards."

"Indeed," Wednesday said sourly.

"I'm sure that Minister Fudge had a good reason..."

"Fudge is an incompetent fool." Wednesday said simply in response to that.

"Yeah, probably," Xander shrugged, "Incompetent or crooked."

"Why not both?"

Xander snorted as Hermione looked affronted.

"Just because you two are from America doesn't mean you have to look down on our government..."

"No, we look down on it because it's stooped over so low Fudge's nose has dirt on it." Xander smirked.

"I'm not certain that's dirt," Wednesday replied lightly.

Hermione scowled at them again, face flushed as she rose to the defense of her nation, but Xander cut her off with a grin.

"Feeling better, are we?"

She glared at him, then her eyes widened for a moment before narrowing again, "Oooh you..."

"Pleased to assist," Xander said, "And like I said, don't worry about Harry. He'll come around, though next time, Herms, you should tell him first. You ever go over my head before trying to reason with me, I'm going to get real angry too... even if you ARE right."

"Agreed." Wednesday added as she reached for a book, considering the subject closed.

Hermione winced, her stomach suddenly clenching. "I suppose that makes sense."

Xander just snorted as he opened up one of his notebooks alongside a reference book and a GURPS magical sourcebook.

* * *

Unfortunately for Hermione things seemed doomed to get worse before they got better, as even though her relationship with Harry stabilized shortly after, Ron seemed determined to make her pay for the loss of the Firebolt, bringing it up nearly constantly when the three talked. Xander watched as Hermione spent a couple miserable weeks, leading into a miserable month, in which the girl became more and more frazzled with each passing day.

It puzzled him because while she was having trouble with some of her friends it didn't seem to be so bad as to cause what he was seeing. He caught up with Wednesday one morning at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast, that topic on his mind.

The dark girl merely frowned ever so slightly and shrugged when he brought it up. "I'm not certain. I've been wondering too."

"Oh, it's a Tremwrurts infestation," A blond to Wednesday's left said airily.

"Huh-wha?" Xander blinked, looking over at her.

"Is it really?" Wednesday looked over herself, suddenly seeming interested in the conversation.

The blond nodded.

"What's a Trem-whatsit?"

A nearby Ravenclaw snorted, and several others giggled.

"Something not to be discussed in front of the plebes." Wednesday said acidly, rising from her breakfast. "I have class, we'll talk later."

Several of the 'plebes' looked affronted, but none of them quite had the courage to challenge the statement. Xander just sighed, confused, and hoped he would understand the explanation.

* * *

Before they could have that conversation, Hermione's problems seemed solved. The broom was returned and there was much celebration among the Gryff's, and a fair amount of griping amongst the Ravenclaw's who were next slotted to play a match with the lions. Said reprieve lasted only a few hours however, Xander found out in the morning, when her pet cat killed Ron's pet rat.

The bushy haired girl was near in tears at breakfast, sitting well away from both Harry and Ron, and her moment of reprieve from the frazzled look she had been cultivating was long gone. She was nervous and seemed tired, often acting like she didn't know where she was supposed to be.

Xander presumed it was a sign of the whatsit infestation, assuming the blond girl had the slightest idea what she was talking about. He hadn't been able to find any reference to it when he looked, yet Wednesday seemed to recognize the term.

Wednesday was another puzzle, he was discovering. She had buried herself in her studies in a way he hadn't seen her do before. Not that she wasn't a good student, she was, she just never seemed to study. Her time in the library with he and Hermione was usually spent on private reading, as far as he could tell, yet now she was pouring over reference books and barely grunted when he tried to talk to her.

Girls.

Well, Girls and Addamses.

Xander figured it would be a bad sign if he ever understood either.

Then, in a rapid-fire assault on the school, Sirius Black made another attempt, this time getting as far as Harry's room where he was caught standing over Ron when the redhead woke up. Xander shuddered at that, the idea of waking up to someone wielding a knife over your head was chilling, but he was also now driven to understand this Sirius Black.

How the man from the Grimoire became a deranged knife wielding psycho was something Xander couldn't fathom. So, in the meanwhile, he steeled himself and returned to his room while it was empty and pulled out the Coven Grimoire for the first time since before the holidays.

* * *

Narcissa was nearing the end of her patience.

Her fool of a cousin INSISTED on sticking his head into the noose, and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. Honestly, sneaking into a boys bedroom to kill him, then *running* away when a twelve year old woke up.

The Black's weren't the noble and kind hearted family in history, Narcissa would be the first to admit, in only in private, so she was fairly certain that several of them were rolling over in their graves at the moment.

Not because Sirius had tried to kill a child, but because he'd failed in so stupid a fashion.

If you're going to kill someone, their Great Grandfather had always said, do the job right the first time. Because your second opportunity may only come at a time of your target's choosing. And that was no way to run an assassination.

Honestly, he could have finished it then and there, Narcissa scowled. She didn't care one whit for the Potter boy, live or die didn't matter to her, so she rather wished Sirius had finished the job. At least then he could put this stupid obsession behind him and maybe they could have gotten the damned fool out of the country and away from the Dementors.

Argentina was nice this time of year, Narcissa considered, and the Black's owned an island off the coast somewhere in that region.

She thought it was in that region at least.

The blasted thing was covered in so many wards that only one person alive knew how to get there, she suspected.

And that one person was trying to get his soul sucked out by the bloody Dementors!

Were she a different person, Narcissa Malfoy would have screamed her frustration to the world then. As it was she merely stiffened her step and made her way back to her rented room over the Three Broomsticks.

Damn her idiot cousin and her moronic husband both.


	57. Chapter 57

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander growled slightly as he pushed his fountain pen into the page of the Grimoire, angrily countering the protestations coming from the embedded personalities. It was an exercise in frustration, unfortunately, since they weren't supposed to be truly independent people, but recorded facsimiles of same.

The process used to embed the personalities into the book was similar to that used to create portraits, a combination of the Protean Charm and various memory spells that caused the book to become 'similar' to the minds of those who had cast the charms on themselves. Xander had to bear in mind that, in magical terms, the word 'Similar' had very specific connotations. It didn't mean similar, it meant *Similar*, with a capital 'S'.

The Similarity Principal of Magic could easily be summed up by saying Like affects Like. That, however, was a kindergarten way of describing the true meaning. It was like saying that the Sun was a burning ball in the sky. It was accurate enough to convey the concept, but wholly inadequate to actually describe the power and majesty that existed in a Stellar object if that nature.

In his reading Xander had been surprised to discover that Normal Science had begun to predict the existence of this, incredibly important and yet underestimated, branch of magic. It had first shown up in his RPG books, prompting him to read into it further in his Physics text.

It was called Quantum Entanglement, a theory which held that certain quantum particles could become entangled with other, identical particles, and affect each other at any range, instantly. It was, Xander thought, rather shocking that Normal Physics had begun to theorize the existence of an entire branch of magical study.

In the here and now, however, it was merely giving Xander a headache.

On the one hand, the book he was holding was supposed to hold several weak imitations of people. People he had been arguing with for several hours and, for all intents and purposes, losing too. They didn't TALK like reflections, not once he aroused their interest. They changed from the rote by rote teachers and began to argue that real people, often ignoring Xander's own attempts to enter the conversation in their ire with each other.

Lilly Evans and Sirius Black were adamantly screaming his innocence, while Narcissa Black was playing Devil's Advocate and pointing out that Sirius HAD come from a noted Pureblood Family and could easily have fallen into line in his later years. In fact, she pointed out, his infiltrating a noted family like the Potters would be considered a coup worthy of a Black.

Xander had winced when that point was made, he was relatively certain that his ears would have been ringing from the outraged replies.

Alice Prewitt was more muted, offering quieter thoughts on the subject, and sometimes drifting off into confusing and nearly incomprehensible lines of thought that brought nothing but confusion to the topic at hand.

ENOUGH.

Xander's heavily scored writing brought a moment of stillness to the book, and he took a few seconds to breathe a sigh of relief before putting pen to paper again.

These are the FACTS. One, He wrote, the Potters were betrayed and Black was presumed to be the Secret Keeper. Two, Black did get in a confrontation with Pettigrew in which Pettigrew apparently died. Black was thrown in Azkaban and DID recently escape, and DID show up in Harry's room last night wielding a knife.

Those words burned into the page for a moment before the inked blank dog slumped in place and seemed defeated.

It's not possible, the word bubbles said over the dog's head. I couldn't have. Right?

Of course you couldn't, Lilly's representation, a delicately inked flower, responded. We must not have all the information.

That was possible, Xander conceded. He'd grown to like the annoying troublemaker over the past few months, and just couldn't wrap his mind around Black as a murderous traitor. Of course, that's exactly what the book would want him to think if the book was some evil talisman like the diary from the year before.

But would he be able to think that way if it was?

Xander rubbed his temple, trying not to groan. It was just a pain in the ASS.

He sighed, his pen clattering to the desk as he pushed the book away. He'd trying getting answers, but all he got were more questions.

* * *

Narcissa frowned at her copy of the Grimoire. She didn't know why she had brought it with her to Hogsmeade really, though it did provide a link into the school that couldn't be traced, and thus a way to get information out that may be otherwise suppressed by Dumbledore or the Ministry. With Lucius being no help at all on this matter, she needed every scrap of information she could lay her hands on.

The ongoing debate within the pages was just short of ridiculous in her opinion, and she wondered what the boy was trying to accomplish with it? The memories within had no will of their own, and no real information past the day the book had been charmed.

Or so she thought, until she noted Lilly referring to herself as Lilly Potter.

Narcissa scowled, that wasn't right. And why in Merlin's Name was Lilly so adamantly defending Sirius anyway?

Back then they had barely tolerated each other. The Grimoire had been completed at the end of their fifth year, before Lilly and James had started to date, and while Sirius was still detested as the Casanova want to be of Hogwarts.

She cast her mind back to the spell they had used, wondering if they had forgotten to seal it properly. Perhaps the book was even to this day drawing on their memory connection?

Narcissa shook her head, then quickly cast a few diagnostic spells on it, and herself.

No, no connection to be found.

She sighed. It was quite strange, but not immediately important she decided. She had more important things to deal with in the near term.

* * *

Xander barely muffled his groan when he stepped down into the common room and right into a, patent pending, Draco Malfoy Rant (tm). The blond was roaring about his punishment, saying that McGonagall didn't have the right to punish him and basically going on and on to anyone who'd listen.

It actually took Xander a while to remember what the hell the blond was being punished for, mostly cause he rarely paid attention to Quidditch. It hit him when Draco said something about a harmless prank, reminding him of the long Dementor robes Draco and his hangers on had used to try and intimidate Harry during the match.

"Oh not this again," Xander muttered, just before he could stop himself.

"Stay out of this Harris!" Draco snapped, whirling around. "This is none of your business!"

"You can say that again," Xander shook his head, pushing past the group and moving toward the far side of the room. "I just came down to get some air, and I don't mean hot air that's already been blown up everyone's ass."

Several people in the room laughed openly at that as Draco visibly trembled, turning an alarming shade of puce.

"How DARE you!?"

"Me? You're bitching about being punished after that stunt?" Xander laughed dryly, "If I were McGonagall I'd give you points for that. You made us look like idiots, and Harry look like more of a lion than ever!"

Draco jerked back, like he'd been slapped.

"It's amazing," Xander said with a shake of his head, "You have to be Harry Potter's best ally, he can always count on you to make him look good."

Draco snapped, his wand in his hand in a flash as he snapped it in Xander's direction, "Furnunculus!"

"Protego!" Xander replied, his own wand having already been gripped tightly as he recognized Draco's state of mind. "Stupefy!"

The red blast of energy crossed paths with Draco's curse in the middle of the room, giving the blond just enough time to drop to the ground as it passed over him and dropped Goyle in his tracks. The Furnunculus curse splashed across Xander's shield, dropping its effectiveness but not penetrating the magical bubble.

Xander instantly dropped the shield, killing the power drain, but prepared to cast another.

"I've told you before, Draco, if you intend to CHEAT don't get CAUGHT." Xander said clearly, shifting to one side so if too many of them decided to help Draco he could duck out the door into Hogwarts proper. "Getting caught cheating is worse than losing, even if you win."

"Nothing is worse than losing, fool." Draco sneered as he climbed to his feet.

Xander rolled his eyes, "If everyone knows you cheated, you get no respect for the win... and the people you beat, lose no respect for their loss. But if THEY beat you, and everyone knows you cheated, you lose a HUGE amount of respect for having lost despite having the advantage, and they win an equally huge amount for having beaten the odds. By cheating obviously you give the other side all the cards and concede victory to them."

Draco looked confused, then shook his head, "That's nonsense! If you win you win. That's what counts."

"In a war, sure." Xander returned, his wand still between them and ready to cast. "But this isn't war. Winning on the field doesn't get you anything off it, unless people think you won fair. Every time you go and do something stupid like the other day you make us look worse off the field, and everyone else look better. ESPECIALLY the Gryffs."

Xander moved back to the door and felt it open as he tucked his wand into his pocket.

"Not that I care," He shrugged, "I'm a yank. All this house rivalry crap is meaningless to me."

With that parting shot Xander backed out of the Slytherin Common room and let the stone wall close. He turned and began to make his way up the hall, he really did need to get some air, and then maybe back to the library.

After that little spell exchange he was feeling a lot better actually.

Hermione had cracked the Protean, somehow, he wasn't sure how. She didn't seem to have any TIME to do so. But now it was just a matter of preparing the spell to map Hogwarts Wards.

Frankly, Xander felt it was overtime to get himself a Marauders Eye view of the school.

* * *

Daphne Greengrass leaned slightly back as the commotion in the common room began to die down, noting with amusement that several of those who had been hanging on Draco's every word a few moments earlier were drifting out of the room even as the blond picked up a new rant against his housemate.

"He has a way with words."

Daphne looked over at Tracy Davis, one eyebrow arcing.

"Harris, not Draco."

"Ah." Daphne nodded, "I think he's been thinking about that one since first year, actually."

"Still. He has a point." Tracy said with a put upon sigh. "You're closer to the Malfoy's than I am, Daph... is it an act?"

"Excuse me?" Daphne blinked, surprised at the question.

"Draco." Tracy elaborated. "Is it an act? Or is he really this stupid."

Daphne had to stop there, suddenly considering the question. "I don't know. I doubt it's all an act, though. He's been too perfect at it."

Tracy snickered softly, but nodded in agreement. "I hope you're right."

Daphne nodded soberly, "Me too."

Because if it was an act...

She shuddered to think of it.

"Ugly thoughts aside," Daphne said slowly, "I believe that Xander has secured a slight lead in the race."

Tracy nodded thoughtfully, considering the likely repercussions of the events of a few minutes earlier. Certainly his little speech had shook a few of the uncertain allies Malfoy had gathered back to neutrality, but it was very likely that Harris' own little cabal had grown slightly as well.

"I think you're right." She said after a moment, then rolled her eyes, "Do you think either one of them have any idea?"

"Draco doesn't, for sure." Daphne said with certainty, "At least he's shown no sign of even acknowledging that there ARE Slytherins who aren't rich, pureblooded, and worship the Dark Lord. So long as his core followers are there, I don't think he even knows that the rest of us really exist."

"He knows," Tracy said sourly, "He just doesn't think we have minds of our own. That's reserved for the rich and powerful."

"I stand corrected," Daphne accepted the correction easily. Draco Malfoy simply separated people into two groups, well three really. First was the people like himself, rich or at LEAST pureblooded, and espousers of the Dark Lord's philosophy. Second was, well everyone else. The second group was divided up into people who rightly obeyed the orders of their superiors, IE Draco, and those who didn't. Those who didn't had to be destroyed, or put back into their place. Those who did, well they only existed insofar as they had some use to Draco.

Both girls were quite concerned with what use they would have for Draco in the not too distant future, though their own worries were quite small compared to some in the house. The Greengrass and Davis line were strong enough to make even the Malfoy scion wary of crossing the line of propriety, at least in the current political climate.

Should a new Dark Lord come into ascendance on the Malfoy's side, well then things could get ugly.

Which made them VERY interested in the second horse running in what, realistically, should have been a one horse race. Alexander Harris had pretty much literally come out of nowhere, a true dark horse in a House that prided itself on taking others by surprise. His own cabal of followers, or allies, was relatively low on political power but during their Hogwarts years it wasn't political power that counted.

No, it was actual in the hand power. And that was something Harris had on tap, whether he realized it or not.

Since the previous year Tracy and Daphne had taken close notice in his actions and their repercussions. He was one of the more talented students in their year, prone to strange leaps of seeming genius by times, but not really at the top of any one thing. Draco and Potter both had him outclassed in Defense, Granger, Daphne herself, Tracy and many others had him outclassed in the other classes.

Still, when everything was averaged out, he always seemed to be in the top five for their year. Added to that, he was close friends with numbers one and two, Hermione Granger and Wednesday Addams, and was said to have fought at Potters side in the events of the previous year which at least implied an accord with one of the most politically powerful students at Hogwarts.

Within the house he had on several occasions openly challenged Draco's position and actually backed the Malfoy scion down, or at least diverted him from his course much to the gratitude of many in the house.

So, what had begun as a small loose alliance of house rejects was now looking like a solid powerbase at least as practically powerful as the traditional Slytherin cabal. It was true that Draco had a far more potent external powerbase to call on in certain situations, but for all intents and purposes he couldn't fully tap that power except for those very specific situations.

In the long run that political power would likely be the deciding factor in the race, but their class only had four more years to go before graduation. Once free from the immediate proximity of the Malfoy, well options opened up considerably. So neither Daphne, nor many of the smarter students in the house, were truly playing a long game at the moment. They were looking more to the medium terms, and in that range of play Harris seemed to be the top dog.

In many ways the only thing preventing Harris from assuming full leadership of Slytherin house was the simple fact that he hadn't yet demanded it.

All that as a third year, no less.

It was absolutely infuriating that he didn't seemed to have the slightest CLUE as to any of it. Daphne was beginning to wonder if he wasn't some sort of idiot savant.

* * *

It was done.

Xander couldn't help but smirk a little as he looked over the work. Hermione's calculations and spellwork had been immaculate, as always. His own numbers confirmed her work, as did Wednesdays. That was good enough for him, the map was ready to be imprinted.

That did leave the very annoying problem of how to get it into the Headmaster's office however.

As a Slytherin he couldn't just get caught doing something bad and get sent there for discipline, Professor Snape handled his own house entirely IN house. Xander figured he'd have to murder someone to wind up in the headmaster's office, and that seemed a little extreme for his current plans.

Basically that didn't leave him many options really.

He could try and break in, he supposed. The fact that the Headmaster used various sweets as the password to his office was no secret, but even so Xander suspected that the system was a little more complicated than that. If he'd been setting it up he probably wouldn't let the password work unless he was sitting in his office or it had been used by someone who was cleared through the wards. Even if Dumbledore was careless enough to do otherwise, he'd damn sure have the wards record entries.

Showing up as having broken into the headmaster's officer would be a bad way to keep his anonymity, and since he wasn't a ward breaker that option was out.

That left a Trojan Horse, which should be doable, but he'd have to set the conditions carefully. Xander hummed happily to himself as he began to cast small cantrips he'd learned in his first year. Sometimes the best spells were the simplest.

* * *

"Sir?"

Professor Severus Snape paused, half turning as his robes flowed around him, and glared at the young Slytherin coming up behind him. "Yes?"

The second year gulped but held out an envelope, "I'm sorry sir, but I found this."

Snape took the proffered envelop and noted the name on it, one eyebrow raising. "And you bring it to me because?"

"I can't find Xander, Sir." The boy said, "It looked important."

He looked at it again and noted that the letter did indeed have a seal that read Gringotts of America. A markedly different seal from Gringotts, he noted with an odd flash of annoyance. Arrogant colonials. Severus fisted the envelop, however, and drove it into his pocket. "Very well, I'll see to it that he gets it. Be on your way."

"Yes Sir."

Snape didn't even pause to watch the boy run off, he just turned and continued on his way to his nightly visit with the headmaster.

"Milk Duds." He growled out, not breaking stride as the gargoyle's leapt out of the way.

In the Headmaster's office he found the other heads of house waiting and nodded curtly, "My apologies for being late, I was stopped by a student."

"No trouble at all, Severus," Albus smiled calmly, holding out a bowl of confectionaries, "Lemon drop?"

"No, thank you." Snape said as he took his seat.

"Now then, let us beg..." Dumbledore began, then paused with a frown to look back at Snape. "Are you aware you're carrying a charmed item?"

Snape stiffened, mind racing, "No, I..."

He calmed quickly, sighing, and fished out the envelop the student had given him. "I was just given this, apparently Mr. Harris left his correspondence lying around carelessly."

Albus took it from him, adjusting his glasses, "My, my, Gringotts of America. Yes, I see."

"Is it a problem, Albus?" Minerva leaned forward.

"No, no. Merely an identification charm that was activated," Albus chuckled, "I must be getting paranoid."

"Is Mr. Harris nearby?" Pomona blinked.

"No," Albus chuckled again, "No it was most likely reacting to me as Headmaster, and legal guardian of all my students. Slightly shoddy spellmanship, but I suppose American Goblins are a little laxer in their work than our own."

He handed the envelop back, "See to it that Mr. Harris receives his bank statements, Severus, I understand he's made quite a lot off that little potion of his."

Snape scowled, stuffing the envelop back in his robes as the others chuckled. He didn't need to be reminded of that. The very idea that such a simple potion brew could have become worth so much was, well it was both mind boggling and more than a little infuriating. He'd looked up the patent himself shortly after it became public and was quite disgusted by how so frivolous a brew had become to sought after.

The only thing that saved Harris, in Snape's eyes, was that the boy was quite rightly embarrassed by the whole matter.

Still chuckling at his Potions Master, the Headmaster shifted the topic back to the daily reports and began the meeting in earnest.

* * *

Xander was sitting in the Common Room when Professor Snape strode in for his nightly inspection. The Professor spotted him from across the room and smoothly crossed over, parting the students with no effort whatsoever, and unceremoniously dumped the letter in Xander's lap.

"I strongly advise you not to lose your correspondence in the future." Snape hissed softly, glaring down at him. "You may not be so lucky as to have someone return it."

Xander nodded, clearly swallowing. "Thank you, sir."

Snape rolled his eyes and pivoted away, robes billowing around him as he walked. Xander watched him leave before breaking the seal on the envelope and taking out the blank parchment inside.

He couldn't help but smirk slightly as he looked around to make sure no one was too close, then tapped the paper with his wand.

Deafening Silence?

The words flowed onto the page smoothly and Xander smiled slightly, "Sweet Sorrow."

The words faded away, replaced by a series of lines that grew out from the center, showing a clear view of the Slytherin Common Room with name tags for everyone currently within, and slowly grew to encompass the whole school.

The New Coven Proudly Presents, A Marauder's Eye View.

Xander idly placed a finger on the map and used it to drag the view around until he could see the Gryffindor Dorms, his eye picking out Hermione Granger's name in what he presumed was her room. Another smooth motion brought him to Wednesday, sitting at her desk in Ravenclaw dorms.

"Mischief managed, Mr. Black," He whispered, with a small decidedly evil looking grin. "But not complete, not by a long shot."

Xander tapped the map again, quietly telling it, "Military Intelligence."

The map went blank as he got up and walked across the room to a second year he'd saved from a Malfoy beat down.

"Thanks, Derrick." Xander nodded, "Just let me know what you want from town next weekend, ok?"

"No problem, Xan," Derrick Smythe, half-blood Slytherin outcast said with a small smile.


	58. Chapter 58

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The next day Xander sat through his classes, barely able to sit still as he thought about the completed map. He couldn't stop thinking about how insanely cool that little piece of spell work was, and what could be done with it. The security, and counter security, uses alone were fantastic but he'd read the copious notes Black had made concerning the map, and those uses were the LEAST of its abilities.

In effect, anything reported by the wards were accessible to the map. Unfortunately it was strictly a real-time device, with no recording capability, but Xander was thinking about how to change that already. Even so, before he'd crashed the night before Xander had accessed some of the higher functions of the map to watch the progress of the Prefects on their nightly patrols.

Percy Weasley had been paired with the Ravenclaw Prefect, Penelope Clearwater. They had an interesting method of patrolling the broom closets on the third floor, a very thorough examination of one in particular Xander had noted with a smirk. The Map didn't have visual capability, of course, that wasn't something that was built into Hogwarts wards, but many areas of the castle, including almost all 'public' areas were monitored by listening charms tied into the ward structure.

The map faithfully rendered various epithets, moans, and groans into speech bubbles coming from the two Prefects and, much to Xander's amusement, Black's addition to the spellwork created cartoon caricatures that writhed together luridly as he watched.

The Marauders were brilliant, but twisted Xander noted, and he was hardly surprised that the Coven had detested them on principal. He was certainly glad that Black's supplementary notes hadn't been included in the spellwork he'd shared with Wednesday or Hermione. The map construct itself was so complicated that it was all but impossible to really pick out the difference between the more straightforward functions of the display and Sirius Black's 'extra' additions, otherwise Xander had little doubt that he'd have been treated to a game of Human Sacrifice, with two irate girl's wielding the knives.

He shuddered at that, Hermione may stop before actually cutting him in that situation, but Wednesday wouldn't.

Xander shared almost everything with his friends, but he wasn't entirely without survival instincts.

At least after reading the supplementary notes on the Map, Xander had a good idea what it had been age coded to only let him talk to Black when he was at least in third year. A couple years ago he'd have probably showed the map in 'spy mode' to Wednesday for giggles.

That would have gone over SO well, he was sure.

* * *

When classes were done for the day Xander headed for the library. While he was going to hold back some functions of the map for reasons of personal security, not to mention an allergy to pain, he had to let the girls know that it had worked.

He found Wednesday at their regular table and immediately noticed that something was up. The dark girl was sitting stiffly, as was her habit, but she wasn't reading. Her glittering eyes were focused on Hermione who was sitting across the room at another table. Xander followed her gaze and paused in place as he took in the normally perky, brightly enthusiastic, girl. Her hair was badly frazzled, looking like it hadn't been brushed in some time, making its normal bushy appearance look like the height of fashion.

Xander exchanged a glance with Wednesday, who nodded and rose from her place. Together they split around the tables and approached Hermione from either side, taking the seats beside her silently and clearly startling the girl.

"You're not looking so hot," Xander said, eschewing any attempt at tact as he reached over and slid her book away from her.

Hermione glared at him, "Well thank you so much for that pick me up."

"If the truth irritates you that much, perhaps you're worse off than you appear." Wednesday said idly as she and Xander looked at the title of the book Hermione had been reading. "Dangerous Creatures Statutes?"

"Interesting reading," Xander said with a twitch of his head. "There's not another big honking snake in the school is there?"

"Don't be silly." Hermione rolled her eyes, "Where would another Basilisk come from?"

"I dunno, same place the first one did?" Xander shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not real clear on where that one came from."

Hermione huffed, but Wednesday merely smiled slightly. "He has a point. I presume, however, that this has something to do with Buckbeak?"

Hermione slumped a little, looking tired, but nodded.

"I take it that hasn't gone well?"

"We lost," Hermione admitted, "Buckbeak is due to be executed in a few days."

"I see." Wednesday said quietly.

Xander felt bad for the animal, he knew for a fact that Draco hadn't been as badly hurt as he'd pretended, but the fact was it did attack a student and he was pretty damn sure that any dog that did that on school property back in the states probably wasn't going to last half as long as this Hippogriff had. More to the point, however, Xander had a feeling that this wasn't the core of the issue he'd come over here to deal with, namely why Hermione looked like she was up for about three days straight.

"Herms, that can't be all of it. You really look horrible, are you coming down with something?"

"No." She said sharply, glaring at him, "I most certainly am not. I just haven't been sleeping much lately, thank you very much."

With that she got up in a huff and strode off, leaving Xander to frown thoughtfully.

"Is that part of that Tremwrurt thing you and Luna were talking about?" He asked.

Wednesday blinked, looking at him with a genuinely confused look, "What?"

"Tremwrurt, remember? Luna said something about that and you said it wasn't to be discussed with the 'plebes'?" Xander asked again, this time he was the one who was confused.

"Ah," Her face relaxed into understanding. "Is that what she actually said?"

"Bwa?"

"Alexander, I've mentioned before that the Addamses have a gift of languages, correct?"

"Yeah, last year."

"Well I didn't hear what she said, I heard what she *meant*." Wednesday said coolly, collecting her books. "Luna is a very interesting person, I don't believe she herself knows the names for the things she sees, so she makes up things to call them."

"Uh... ok. So what did she see?"

"Elementa Aetas." She said before following after Hermione, leaving Xander perplexed behind her.

"What the heck does that mean?" He asked of the air around him.

Predictably, he got no answer.

"Great." He sighed, getting up and collecting his own books.

In all the 'excitement' he hadn't even got a chance to show his map to the girls.

* * *

"Hermione."

Hermione half turned, seeing the dark Addams scion walking toward her, and sighed. "What is it, Wednesday?"

"You may relax, I'm not concerned with how you're manipulating time."

Hermione's eyes widened and she started to stammer, "I'm sure I don... don't know what you're talking about... and further..."

Wednesday held up a hand, "Stop. I told you, I don't care. I am interested in helping you with your other problem, however."

"What's that?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Buckbeak."

Hermione sighed, "I don't know that there's anything we CAN do."

A slightly sinister smile played at the lips of the dark girl, "Didn't I ever tell you that the Addamses are widely considered the worlds foremost authorities on magical creatures? We even maintain several private reserves for them."

Hermione's eyes widened, "You do?"

"Let's talk."

* * *

Xander sighed, laying back in his room and watching the names move around on the map. Hermione and Wednesday were speaking together near Gryffindor dorms, but even though they were in a public area Xander didn't activate the maps 'eavesdropping' mode. He hoped that Wednesday could help Hermione, but was pretty sure that neither would be appreciative of him listening, or reading, in.

Other students were running around the school in various states of madness, the end of year exams having snuck up on them. Xander ignored them, just randomly sliding the image around. Headmaster Dumbledore was in his office, Professor Snape was down in the dungeons, and he noted Harry and Ron were out on the Quidditch Pitch.

Someone named Peter Pettigrew was running across the grounds outside, and Xander paused on his name for a long moment.

"Peter Pettigrew..." He mused out loud. "I've heard that name before."

He shrugged it off, not able to place it.

Must be a student from one of the other houses. Hufflepuff, probably, he decided. He didn't know any of them really.

* * *

Narcissa looked over the notes in her copy of the Grimoire, puzzled by the sudden interest Alexander had taken in the situation with Sirius. She should have kept his shade locked away she supposed, but it seemed harmless at the time. Sirius was safely locked away, his shade was merely an echo of his Hogwarts self, and was by and large harmless.

Now she had to worry about what the boy was learning, or believed he was learning, about her cousin. Sirius had always driven her nuts in the past, but it was normally in an annoying way, not the year the hair from her skull way he was currently managing without even thinking of her. She hoped that Alexander didn't do anything stupid if he ran across Sirius.

Whatever the man had been, he was a dangerous felon now.

Narcissa sighed at the lost dreams of her past. The ways they were going to change the world, her, Lilly and Alice. As a trio they had been unstoppable, fighting even the much vaunted Marauders to a humiliating defeat during one of the most renowned prank wars in Hogwarts history.

Ok, it had only been the rout it was because the Marauders never knew who they were and even Sirius didn't find out until Lilly and James were all but betrothed. By that point Sirius had taken the fatalistic point of view that James would never be able to go all out against Lilly, and the equally pessimistic view that Lilly would have no such problem.

Probably the most realistic view he could have taken, Narcissa supposed. Earlier in their shared history the Marauders would have probably dominated the fight, given the fact that they had the greater experience and knowledge of Hogwarts. When the Coven had learned of the Map, well even Lilly had been stunned into silence by the sheer brilliance of the artifact.

As it was, without knowing who they were fighting, the Marauders never even touched Lilly or Alice, and only caught Narcissa herself with secondary splash over.

They had been brilliant, but there was only so much one could do without at least some basic information on your opponents. That was a lesson Narcissa had learned then, and was relearning now in her hunt to bring her erstwhile cousin down before he got himself killed.

Though she was beginning to wonder if maybe letting him get kissed and claiming the body may not be the best avenue. Would certainly result in fewer headaches, she suspected, however it was certainly not her preferred option. She wasn't certain if the Magic would accept an Heir conceived post-soul, and for obvious reasons wasn't eager to find out.

She would be damned, however, if the Black line ended now that she had a chance to save it. Even as slim as chance as it was. Not without ever possible effort being expended on her part.

* * *

End of Year exams were on them shortly after that, leaving few of them with any time to do much other than study and test. Xander found himself fairly confident in his classes, not too worried about the exams, which was a nice change from how he ended every year back home, sweating and panting and praying that Willow would save his sorry ass from repeating a year.

Ok, that was possibly a little bit of an exaggeration, his marks weren't that bad but he still went through the horrible anxiety every single year and he was so not missing it now.

Charms went smoothly, his practice with the shield charm gave him a nice extra credit boost on the test, but overall he was sure he'd done pretty decently. The ones that still tripped him up were the simpler ones they had learned, ironically, because he'd pushed on ahead.

Transfiguration kinda sucked, Xander found, but he probably scraped by there. He didn't have the natural hand at it that Hermione seemed to show, but he wasn't as low on the pole as Ron Weasley or Neville Longbottom either, so he figured he was doing ok. He didn't expect to ever get a mastership in that subject, however.

The Defense course was exhausting, a rigged up challenge against various 'dark creatures' that had him sweating by the end but little else. Hermione had been badly shaken by the finale obstacle, a Boggart, which marred her otherwise stellar showing. Harry had, on the other hand, blown through it with an absurd ease in Xander's opinion, like he was testing below his ability.

Some people just made Xander want to grit his teeth.

Potions was easy. Not that he was a budding potions master or anything, but Snape was generally soft on Slytherins and Xander was no slouch with an Athame and a Cauldron, so he passed. He felt bad for Harry and the others there, since they were working five times harder than he was, and generally got less out of it.

Mind you, if they survived Snape there wasn't a thing in the real world that was going to faze them.

Arithmancy was grueling. It wasn't so much that it was difficult, it was just so DAMNED boring. Add three ones, add seven, subtract nine. What do you get? A powerful spell that was based on the friggin number you STARTED with.

There had to be something else going on there that Xander just didn't understand yet, but for the moment it was just obscene amounts of adding and subtracting with no real correlation to practical applications that he could see.

It was enough to drive a man to drink, that is if Xander wasn't massively anti-alcohol.

By the time the exams where done everyone was worn out, but glad to see them go. The Gryffindors were still roaring over their victory on the Pitch, while the Slytherin's were by and large whining about losing.

That was what drove Xander to bed early that night, his mind finally clear of school and still revolving around the mystery of the grimoire and Sirius Black as he laid himself down to rest.

* * *

Peter Pettigrew!

Xander bolted upright in his bed, eyes wide as he stared into the darkness.

No way.

He shook his head, then lunged across the bed and scrambled over to his trunk. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that no one had noticed his waking, and he quickly fumbled through the lock on the trunk, opening it to the first storage section and retrieved his map.

The map shimmered for a moment in response to his tap, and then the words 'Civil War' appeared centered in it.

"Quiet Riot." Xander replied softly.

The map blanked again, then the lines of Hogwarts appeared. Xander quickly panned over to the Hufflepuff dorms, remembering his thoughts of so many nights earlier, and frowned.

"Pettigrew... Pettigrew... There's no Pettigrew there." He mumbled to himself, panning across the Gryffindor with the same result. Ravenclaw was next, and still there was no one by the name of Peter Pettigrew.

"It's not possible, is it?" He licked his lips, zooming the map out so he could scan the grounds. There were a few tags moving around and he quickly scanned over to them. Hagrid was no surprise, but he blinked when he spotted Wednesday and Hermione out and about and heading toward Hagrid's hut. "What are you two up to?"

He scowled at the names, but then scanned around some more. Wednesday was far from helpless, and she generally knew what she was doing, so he wasn't going to impose himself on their company for no reason. Besides, he still had a mystery of his own to solve.

The fact that Ron and Harry were out as well had him shaking his head.

"Does anyone sleep in this damned place?" He muttered.

Xander's annoyance was cut off, however, when he spotted the name he was looking for close to where Ron and Harry were as those two left Hagrid's. He hadn't imagined it.

Pettigrew was alive? But that made no sense. How does someone hide from the entire world for so long? Especially when they've received accolades as a hero in such a small, insular, society? It didn't seem possible.

He was still puzzling that out when another name crossed the ward boundaries, heading dead for Harry and Ron.

Sirius Black.

"Oh hell." Xander muttered, grabbing his wand and robes as he bolted for the door. So much for getting to bed early and resting up

* * *

"There he is," Hermione whispered, pointing to the spot where the hippogriff was tied out. "We don't have much time, they'll be here soon."

"Follow me." Wednesday said softly, breaking position and creeping toward the garden patch Hagrid kept out behind his hut.

The two girls made their way down, keeping an eye out for the ministry representatives who were scheduled to arrive that very night. Hermione wasn't sure what Wednesday thought she could do, but she was going to take any chance she had to save Buckbeak.

"Damn!" Hermione hissed. "They're here!"

"Down." Wednesday responded, dragging her into the pumpkin patch, behind one of the enormous gourds. They stayed crouched as they heard Minister Fudge speak.

"Bad business this." The Minister said as he, Dumbledore, and another man were admitted to the house.

"What do we do? They're going to really do it!" Hermione hissed, sounding halfway panicked.

"Shhh." Wednesday replied firmly. "Wait.

"Wait for what?"

When the face Wednesday had been eyeing in the window turned away, "For this."

She rose and quickly approached the Hippogriff, pausing just long enough to bow politely without taking her eyes off it. Buckbeak returned the bow almost instantly, and then her hands were on the rope, undoing the knots with ease.

"Come." She ordered flatly, leading the apparently docile animal quickly and quietly away from the pumpkin patch.

Hermione, shocked, followed in meek silence.


	59. Chapter 59

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander hit the old courtyard at a dead run, having used his map to dodge the Prefect patrols and Filch. Fenrir was at his heels, tongue lolling out as the young puppy happily ran along with his human. The duo headed straight for the Whomping Willow, which was where the names were apparently converging on the map, and arrived just as a scream broke the air.

Xander slid to a stop on the moist grass, eyes wide as he watched Ron just yanked down and under the large tree and Harry dive after him, barely dodging the flailing branches.

"Stupefy!" Xander snapped, extending his wand out at the familiar looking black dog. The crimson bolt barely missed Harry, splashing harmlessly and ineffectively on the trunk of the Willow as Xander lost sight of his targets.

"Damn it." He muttered, edging closer. It only took a few moments to determine that he wasn't getting through easily, and Xander didn't like his odds of getting through at all. He sighed, and backed off.

"Where's Dumbledore..." Xander muttered, drawing out the still active map and starting to slide the image around.

He paused a moment later when he noted that one Remus Lupin was rushing across the grounds, heading for the main gate.

"What the..." Xander scowled, trying to make sense of things.

Everyone seemed to be on the move, Xander tried to puzzle it out but couldn't. Still, the defense professor was the closest teacher so he bolted off in that direction.

Xander arrived at the main gate in time to see Remus pause just outside, then vanish with a loud crack.

"FUCK." Xander cursed, not for the first time in his life perhaps, but certainly the loudest. He pulled out the map again and glared at it. "Where'd they go?"

Unfortunately the Whomping Willow was right up against the castle wards, and whatever passage lay under it apparently led straight out and beyond the map's range. Xander sighed, looking out in the direction it seemed to lay and noted that it wasn't quite in the direction of Hogsmeade, but it was close.

Xander turned to head back but was brought to a stop when Professor Snape rushed through the gate, not looking to the side even slightly, and vanished with a similar crack before Xander could say a word.

"Alright, what the hell is going on?" Xander growled, glaring at the spot the Potions professor had occupied a moment earlier. "Does everyone know something I don't?"

Fenrir yipped once.

"Shut up, you." Xander half smirked at the dog, then sighed and started panning the map again, looking for Dumbledore.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Hermione asked softly.

Wednesday nodded, "Sounded like a gunshot."

"At Hogwarts?"

"I said like, not that it was one." The dark girl replied. "I don't know what it was, but we're a little busy at the moment, no?"

"Right. Sorry."

"We will have to fly Buckbeak out," Wednesday sighed, "The closest reserve is on the Continent, it will take several days to arrive."

"What? But..." Hermione was aghast. Missing several days of school, without permission? "We'll be expelled!"

"Shut up. You'll get us caught." Wednesday hissed, then sighed. "I'll do it."

"But... you can't, you'll be..."

"Salem will take me, if not well my family will home school me." Wednesday shrugged, "They won't question my choice."

Hermione swallowed, stomach rolled into tightly chorded knots. "I'll... I'll come too."

"No, you will not."

"I can't let you take the responsibility for this, it was my idea!" Hermione hissed.

Wednesday smiled slightly, "Only one of us can go, Hermione. Buckbeak can't carry us both that far. And since it can only be one of us, do you know where the Addams Range is?"

Hermione grimaced, but shook her head.

"Precisely. Rest assured, it will be handled."

The duo were skirting the Forbidden Forest as they led the Hippogriff away from Hagrid's hut and it's legally mandated grisly fate. Wednesday wanted to be well clear of the area before flying Buckbeak off, not wanting to be spotted by anyone, especially so early in her flight. They were close to where she intended to leave from when a shadowed figure appeared, heading straight for them.

Hermione and she drew their wands, but were surprised to see the figure hold out his empty hands.

"Whoa, whoa, I come in peace!"

"Xander," Hermione growled, irritated as she slid her wand back into her robes, "You scared the hell out of me."

"Yeah well, that's the least of our worries." Xander muttered.

"What do you mean?" Wednesday asked, eyebrow rising.

"I just watched a big black mutt drag two students into a tunnel under the whomping willow," Xander explained.

"Who?" Hermione blurted.

Xander just stared at her for a minute, "Which two students are not present and are also known for getting into this kind of trouble?"

"Oh God, Harry." Hermione gasped.

"And Ron. What's worse, I'm pretty sure the mutt was Sirius Black." Xander said, his face deadly serious.

Hermione cried out, her knees buckling. Before she could fall, Wednesday had her by the arm, "Get ahold of yourself."

The Addams scion turned back to Xander, "What makes you think it was Black?"

"This," Xander produced the map, already active. The two girls looked at it and saw their names centered on it, "You can change shape, but you can't fool the wards that easy. Here's the weird thing, though... They weren't alone. Peter Pettigrew was with them."

Hermione stared at him for a moment, eyes clearing as she dredged up the memory. They widened a moment later, "That's impossible!"

"That's what I thought, but he was in Hogwarts last night too, I didn't put it together until a little earlier."

"I don't know this Pettigrew person."

"He's the man Sirius Black supposedly killed after betraying Harry's family." Xander explained.

Wednesday nodded, remembering the story then. "Interesting. Well, this is all fascinating, but we should act."

"We need to tell the teachers!"

"Yeah, good luck finding one." Xander muttered, "Dumbles is nowhere in sight, Snape and Lupin both left the school, and the others are on the other side of the grounds... ALL the way on the other side."

"Show me the tunnel." Wednesday ordered.

Xander winced, but nodded. The trio, plus one Hippogriff, rushed off. At the Willow Xander pointed to the tunnel entrance as they stood back at a safe distance. "Right there. It goes off in that direction, if it's straight."

"What's out there? Hogsmeade?" Wednesday asked.

"No," Hermione frowned, "It's the Shrieking Shack."

"You sure?"

"That's the only thing in that direction."

"Very well," Wednesday nodded, handing her the reins they'd put on Buckbeak. "Take these for a moment."

Hermione accepted the reins, then Wednesday walked calmly into the Willow.

"Wait! You can't!" Xander lunged after her, but missed as he realized too late what she was doing.

She ignored him, ducking one swinging branch then stepping into another and petting it softly as she murmured something they couldn't hear. In a few moments the tree drooped and made a sound that seemed suspiciously like a sigh of contentment.

After a moment she looked up, "Xander. Go through the tunnel, be careful. We'll meet you on the other side."

Xander hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Right."

In a few seconds he was gone.

* * *

The tunnel was dark, dank, and generally sucked but Xander pushed through as the cobwebs brushed the side of his face. He cast a Lumos, lighting up the length of the tunnel, and increased his pace.

'How does Harry get into these situations?' Xander grumbled to himself as he moved as quickly as he could. 'It's like the dude is cursed or something. You know what? More important, how does Harry get ME into these situations? I barely know the guy!'

He slowed down as he came to the end of the passage and looked up to find a wooden trap door above him.

"Well, end of the line." Xander whispered, then grimaced, "Hopefully not literally."

He took a breath and grabbed the rungs of the old wooden ladder that led up to the door above. He winced as it creaked under his weight, but made his way up to the top where he started to hear voices murmuring beyond. He paused at the top, listening, but couldn't make out the words just that the emotions were running pretty hot beyond.

'Great.' Xander hooked his hand in the ladder and looked at his wand, wondering how he was going to do this. He shoved the wand into his teeth and then reached up for the trap door. As it opened a crack he could hear the words beyond.

"Expelliarmus!"

'Oh Crap.'

Xander started to surge up as a thud sounded above him, then suddenly a second thud struck the trap door and slammed down on Xander's head, knocking him off the ladder. He hit the ground on his back, stars spotting in his eyes as his wand flew from his mouth and clattered down beside him.

"Ohhhh crap..." He gasped for air, rolling over, "That sucked."

He gasped for a few moments, sucking at air that wouldn't come in, then finally managed to fill his lungs with a long, ragged, influx of oxygen that burned as much as it tasted good. He got to his hands and knees, then picked his wand up off the ground and glared at the tooth marks in the wood.

"Just friggin great." He muttered, shaking his head as he climbed to his feet.

He looked up at the door above him again, then determinedly shoved his wand into his robes and started climbing again. This time at the time things were quieter, so Xander tested the door and found it free of obstruction so he slowly pushed it open and climbed up into the room beyond.

Xander drew his wand as he knelt there, and looked around. The room was dark and empty, whoever had been there had left while he was gasping for air down below. He got to his feet and started for the door when a yip from below startled him.

"Fenrir!?" He hissed, looking down. "Shut up!"

The puppy growled up at him, jumping up onto the second rung of the ladder.

"Alright, alright, give me a second." Xander muttered, holstering his wand as he climbed back down and hooked the pup up into his arms. "Pushy little mutt."

The puppy growled at him, but Xander ignored him as he heaved the puppy up over the threshold and into the room beyond. Xander then pulled himself up and rolled onto the floor and up to his knees where he redrew his wand.

"You ready, mutt?" He asked wryly, looking at the pup.

Fenrir yipped once in response.

"Shhhh!"

Xander got to his feet and quickly crossed to the door, looking outside cautiously. Everything seemed clear so he and Fenrir made their way out from the Shack and looked around. Xander could see the lights of Hogsmeade in the distance, and those of the castle glowing off over the crest of the hill.

"Great. Where the hell did they go?"

* * *

"Oh my god, we're going to die!" Hermione wailed into the night as she clung to Wednesday, the two flying over the Forbidden Forest to the beat of the big Hippogriff's wings.

Wednesday didn't respond, merely taking the time to guide the direction of the beast beneath them, leaning Buckbeak's back and guiding him into a dive. Hermione screamed as her stomach leapt up into her throat and tried to strangle her.

"There's the shack." Wednesday pointed ahead of them.

"Don't let go! Hold on! Hold on!"

"Calm yourself." Wednesday intoned darkly, looking back over her shoulder.

"Watch where you're going!"

Wednesday glared at her coldly, then turned back to the front. "Look, there are people walking there."

Hermione grimaced, whimpering slightly, and forced herself to look down. After the vertigo started to fade, being forced back by nothing by her determination alone, "I see them. Can you tell who they are?"

Wednesday shook her head, "No. It's too dark. They're levitating two people."

"Do you think Harry or Ron are hurt?"

"One looks like an adult. The other may be small enough to be Ron..." Wednesday shrugged, "I don't know."

"They're going back to Hogwarts." Hermione decided, "That's good right?"

"I don't know. Look at the shack."

Hermione pulled her attention away from the group and looked to the shack. Another person moved out of the shack, pausing to look around.

"Xander."

Wednesday nodded, "Yes, I see Fenrir as well."

"We have to signal him."

"Agreed." Wednesday drew her wand, "Lumos."

* * *

Xander hesitated, trying to determine what direction to go, when a light flashed above him and he looked up. A glowing light moved across the sky, and Xander could occasionally make out the silhouette of wings. He smiled slowly, then nodded.

"Right. Back to school then."

Xander turned toward the glow of Hogwarts and started off at a light jog. Above him the light went out as he started to move, so he picked up the pace and set his jaw as he jogged off into the night.

* * *

The clouds above them were clearing, Hermione noticed, and she looked up to see the full moon appearing in the sky above them. Below the forest was awash in a pale light, shocking the young witch with its beauty.

"My God." She whispered, awed.

"It looks like Harry and Ron are fine." Wednesday said, nodding to the ground.

Hermione looked down, recognizing her friends and sighed in relief. "Thank God."

Even as she said that, however, Hermione could tell something had changed. The group stopped, shocked and turned towards one figure that seemed to stagger. A howl echoed through the night and her blood froze.

"Did Xander say he saw Professor Lupin run out tonight?" She asked with Dread.

"Indeed." Wednesday replied softly. "This is very bad."

* * *

Xander bolted when he heard the howl and screaming, Fenrir running alongside.

"It's always something." He muttered, cresting the hill with wand already tracking. He spotted the group ahead of them, scattering away from a furry form in the middle.

Xander skidded to a stop, staring as his stomach dropped.

"Oh please tell me I'm just having Flashbacks to Snape's Defense lecture." Xander froze, swallowing hard.

The group scattered below them, the large wolf man growling and slavering as it turned about. Xander watched as it gave chase and grimaced as he caught sight of Harry in its path.

"Crap, crap, crap." He muttered, breaking into a run, "I have got to be the stupidest person I've ever heard of. Why the HELL am I chasing a werewolf?"

He led with his wand, snapping it out in the motion for the stunning curse.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

Three red bolts lanced out, the first splattering against the ground, but the remaining two striking the world dead on for what little good it did.

"Oh great, I pissed off Shaggy and now he's looking at me." Xander skidded to a stop again as the wolf man turned in his direction. "Harry! Run!"

The wolf began to lope in his direction, causing Xander to backpedal.

'The STUPIDEST thing I have EVER done.' He thought desperate as he clenched his wand and started casting bone splitters.

"Difindo Ossi!" He snapped out, praying for any kind of edge.

The spell splashed off the wolf, barely fazing it as it sped up.

"Xander!? Xander get out of here!" Harry screamed from where he and another man were scrambling up off the ground. "He'll kill you!"

"I KNOW THAT!" Xander stumbled backwards, still casting bone splitters with desperate speed.

The yipping of a small dog startled Xander for a moment until he remembered that Fenrir had been with him, and he panicked as he recognized the small mutt bolting in from the side on a collision course with the wolf man.

"Fenrir! No! Run!" He screamed, his throat hurting from the effort as the small dog leapt into the air.

Xander tripped back, falling on his ass as the yipping sounds gave way to deep growling snarls, the fifteen pound puppy gone and a four hundred pound wolf slamming into the wolf man's side like a locomotive. Xander gaped, shocked beyond words as he looked at the wolf that had been his puppy and saw an animal over a meter tall at the shoulders snarling and wrestling with the werewolf.

"Fenrir?" He blurted, shocked. "Is that you?"

"Xander!" Harry ran up to him, "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

Xander snapped to look at him, "What am I doing here? I'm trying to save your idiot Gryffindor ass! What brain cell were you using when you dove after Ron anyway? The one you keep in your backside, I'm assuming!?"

A snicker from one side snapped Xander's head around and he recognized the face from his Grimoire.

"Black!" He blurted above the growls of the two wolves, his wand snapping out in reflex. "Stupefy!"

"No!" Harry knocked his hand to one side, sending the stunner into the ground at Sirius Black's feet. "He's innocent. It was someone else who betrayed by parents."

Xander glared for a moment, then got up, one eye on the wolves. Fenrir seemed to be holding his own, leading the werewolf away from them.

"Ok fine. Pettigrew, I assume?" Xander asked.

Now it was Harry's turn to gape, along with Black. "How did you know that?"

Xander smirked, holding up a piece of parchment. "Coven secret."

"You..." Sirius blinked, "The Coven, but Lily and Alice... Narcissa? She helped you?"

Before Xander could say anything a shout came from above, and he looked up to see Buckbeak winging low enough to recognize the riders.

"Xander! Harry!" Hermione screamed, "Dementors!"

The three on the ground turned to see a dark cloud visible in the night sky, and growing.

"Oh Crap.


	60. Chapter 60

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Bolt for the wards!" Xander snapped, shoving Harry towards Hogwarts.

The three of them broke into a run, the frost chill rushing along ahead of the Dementor line as they raced on ahead of it.

"They're going to catch up!" Sirius panted out.

"Change into Padfoot!" Harry yelled, "You can outrun them!"

"What about you!? I'm not leaving you!"

Harry paused, twisting around, and snapped his wand out. "Expecto Patronum!"

A silver mist formed, flowing out from his wand in the direction of the approaching monsters, but it only slowed them slightly.

"Damn it! Run!" Xander grabbed Harry by the shoulder and pulled him along. After they were moving he glanced over his shoulder, "What was that anyway?"

"Patronus Charm!" Sirius shouted back, "only spell known to affect Dementors!"

"Hard to cast?"

"Devilishly tricky."

"Great." Xander muttered, weighing options as he ran. After a moment he glanced over, "Can I assume you know it, Mutt?"

"Used to." The wanted man puffed out.

"Here." Xander flipped his wand over and thrust it over in Sirius' direction.

The disheveled man blinked but took it as they ran, then glanced back. "Thanks."

"Just get them off our ass."

"Right. Harry?" Sirius said, slowing. "You up for a little Godfather/Godson bonding?"

Harry broke out into a smile and nodded.

"On three then."

"THREE!" They shouted together, flicking their wands out, "Expecto Patronum!"

Two silver beasts, a prancing stag and panting grim like dog rushed out and charged into the midst of the oncoming Dementors, scattering them somewhat.

"That bought us some more time," Sirius said, "How far to the ward line?"

"Not sure, we'll have to cut through the forest to get there, though." Xander said as he looked ahead.

Sirius winced, "not good."

"We can make it." Harry said, sounding more confident than any of them were really feeling. "We have to."

"Alright, let's go."

The three broke for the forest, leaving the milling monsters behind to regroup from the Patronus charge. They reached the forest line before the Dementors gave chase again. The thick undergrowth slowed them, but it also kept the wraiths from dropping down on them from above, so they were thankful for the scratches they endured as they moved.

"Will the wards keep them out?" Harry asked, panting with exertion.

"They didn't last time." Sirius muttered.

Xander shook his head, "Dumbles was pretty pissed over than, my money says he's done something about it."

"That'd be fine if it were our money you were betting." Sirius muttered.

"Got a better option?" Xander snapped.

"Guys!" Harry growled, "Can we not do this now?"

"Right. Sorry." Sirius muttered, "And no, I don't. So let's move on."

They all nodded in agreement and pushed towards Hogwarts wardline with as much speed as they could muster.

* * *

Fenrir was no fool, in fact the wolf rather thought highly of himself and his intelligence, which many may not consider meaning much but those people were prey more often than not so their opinions didn't exactly count. That said, tangling with a cursed wolf was not on the young wolf's list of things he loved to do.

Life with his human had so far been pretty quiet, quiet enough that the wolf had to admit that he was becoming... domesticated.

That explained why the tussle had gone on as long as it had, and Fenrir decided that it was time to maybe consider a little exploration of his wolven roots. Later. Like when he wasn't fighting off the dripping maw of a cursed wolf.

Ignorant mongrel.

Fenrir twisted, rolling them along the ground as he got his teeth dug into the cursed wolf's flank and growled out a statement of dominance.

MY turf, lapdog!

The Cursed Wolf wasn't one to give up, however, and Fenrir felt its claws rake along his own flank, drawing blood as his flesh was sliced open. Its mangled howl filled the night air as it responded in badly accented wolven.

Me Alpha!

Fenrir snorted through the tainted blood filling his mouth. That would be the day. The damned Curse Born couldn't even speak the language, and it wanted to be Alpha? Fat chance.

In the words of my Human, Bring it on Mutt.

* * *

"A... are they ok?" Hermione asked, chilled both in spirit and flesh.

They were flying above the Dementor wave, unnoticed by the creatures, and while Hermione wanted to rush down to save Harry and the others, Wednesday refused. The Addams girl knew that while she may be able to stand off a single Dementor, even her father would have difficulties with the massive wave of them below.

"I do not know."

"We have to help them!"

"We will. When we can." Wednesday responded, "At this time, we cannot. We don't know where they are, but then... neither do the Dementors, from what I can tell."

"Then... they're ok."

"There are more dangers below than Dementors."

Hermione looked down again and swallowed as she finally noticed how close they had strayed to the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

"Difindo!"

The spell lashed out, cutting an Acromantula in twain as Sirius spun around and looked for more targets. "Bloody hell! Where did these things come from?"

"Aragog's nest," Harry replied. "He's a friend of Hagrid's."

Sirius stared for a moment, then barked out in laughter, "That just figures. I don't remember them being here when I was in school."

"They were probably smaller in number then," Harry shrugged. "And Aragog was younger, more in control. Their nest is a long way east of here, that was probably just a scout."

"Sorry if I killed a friend of yours," Sirius said, half seriously as he wondered just what the hell his godson had been getting into.

"Don't worry about it," Harry sighed, "without Aragog around we couldn't reason with them, and even with him it would be touch and go at best."

"We need to keep moving," Xander said, feeling a little twitchy without his wand. He would have to start carrying backups, he decided.

"Right." The others agreed.

Sirius sighed, he had to get Harry and this other boy... Xander... back to safety before he could leave. With Peter escaped, he was still a wanted man with no way to prove his innocence. The disheveled man ground his teeth at the thought of his onetime friend. Peter would get his comeuppance, that was destined like the rising of the sun. If he had to hunt his old friend from this life to the next, he would make him pay.

"We're almost through," Xander said suddenly.

The three broke out into the open and looked up to see the lights of Hogwarts in the distance, only to be blinded when a score of Lumos spells erupted around them and they looked to see men and women in Aurors robes approaching.

"Sirius Black, you're captured. Give it up!"

Sirius looked around slowly, grimacing.

"He has hostages!"

"No!" Harry screamed, jumping in front of Sirius, "He's innocent! He's..."

"Stupefy!"

The red bolt dropped Harry in his place, causing Sirius to snarl and start to flick his wand outward. A hand locked on it, plucking the wand from his grip at the last second and he looked back to see Xander shaking his head as he gripped the wand in a read grip.

Sirius looked down at Harry, then sighed and lifted his hands.

"I surrender."

* * *

The trudging walk up to the castle was a grim one as the Aurors kept Sirius under wandpoint the entire way and refused to enervate Harry on the belief that Sirius had confounded the boy. Xander kept his peace, knowing that he wouldn't be believed anyway.

At the castle they were met by an entourage of people that included the Minister for Magic, Lucius Malfoy, and the Headmaster among others. The Minister was puffed out, immensely proud of having captured Sirius Black, while Malfoy merely smiled an oily sort of smile that was filled with satisfaction. A blond woman behind them looked sick, but she was alone in that as even Dumbledore was more focused on Harry's state and gave no indication that he had even noticed Sirius' presence.

"Black! You'll have the Kiss for the trouble you've caused us." Fudge announced pompously.

Sirius just glared at him, then looked back to Harry, but said nothing. What was there to say? They hadn't listened to him after he was incarcerated, why would they begin now?

"Hey Black," A younger voice spoke up, one that Sirius would pay attention to, "I need to know something, before you get what's coming to you."

"What is it, Xander?" Sirius asked.

"You really kill all those people?"

"Of course he did, boy." Fudge blasted out.

Xander and Sirius ignored him, just looking at each other.

"No." Sirius said finally. "I didn't."

"Liar!"

Xander just nodded, hand reaching up to scratch his collar. "When you get where you're going, Black... Take some advice. Ask them for asylum."

Black looked confused, as did everyone else but Albus Dumbledore who looked up in alarm and started to move toward Xander. "My boy, don't...!"

Xander snapped his hand out, throwing something at Black, who caught it on reflex. His eyes widened as he felt a tug at his navel and was suddenly yanked away by portkey.

Everyone gaped for a moment, then the place exploded into chaos.

"What have you done!?" Fudge roared, "Aurors arrest that boy!"

"Where did he go!?"

"What happened!?"

"My God! Black escaped!"

Xander didn't say anything for a moment as the Aurors turned on him with their wands. Then he let his clatter to the floor and slowly interlaced his hands behind his head.

"My name is Alexander Harris and I am a citizen of the American Ministry of Magic. As I am a minor please contact my embassy or my legal guardian, Professor Hardy from the Salem Institute."

"Embassy!?" Fudge sputtered, "You'll get Azkaban for this!"

"You can't, Minister." Dumbledore said, eyes blazing. "He's a minor, all you can do is kick him out of the country."

"But... but...!"

"Minister, if I may," Dumbledore said slowly, "I think that the boy may be safely ignored for the moment."

"But he let Black escape!"

"He sent Sirius Black to the American Embassy in London, Minister." Dumbledore told him, "Even now, Black is being taken into custody by the Americans. The faster you demand extradition, the faster this is ended."

Cornelius Fudge blinked, "Are you certain?"

"I made that port key myself, Minister. The Americans were rightly concerned after you let the Dementors barge onto the grounds the last time."

Fudge reddened, "Ah, well... nothing to be done now then. I have to get to London!"

Fudge turned and rushed out, Aurors following along with Lucius Malfoy. The blond woman stayed behind for a moment and nodded at Xander. Then she too was gone.

* * *

Jennifer Simmons sighed when her secretary informed her that the British Minister for Magic was in the waiting area outside. She'd been expecting him, but that didn't make dealing with the idiot any easier. Officially, Jennifer was assigned to the American Embassy in London as a senior secretary who, for some reason no one not in the know could figure out, didn't actually work for any of the ambassador's people.

In truth she was the Ambassador for the American Ministry of Magic, and represented the rights of any Canadian, American, Cuban, and Mexican Witches and Wizards visiting England. Oh, and a smattering of Caribbean nations as well.

For the most part it was a dull job. London was a reasonably safe destination for American Witches and Wizards, and that translated to the rest of England. Compared to Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations Britain was a free thinkers paradise.

And then, earlier in the evening, one Alexander Harris' emergency portkey tripped. The Marines on station had been told that a couple kids had been issued those, but it was no kid who showed up. A rather confused looking Sirius Black had landed, roughly, in the middle of the Magical Receiving Zone and been greeted by a half dozen M-16s and eight very burly Squib Marines who wanted to know where their kid was.

All things considered they hadn't roughed him up too badly, at least he'd been able to speak in order to ask for asylum with the American Ministry. She almost wished that they'd broken his jaw, however, cause this was looking to be an international incident.

"Send him in." She said, pressing the button on the intercom.

Minister Fudge bustled in the door, followed by an aristocratic looking blond, which was in turn followed by another aristocratic looking blond. Jennifer sighed as softly and unobtrusively as she could.

Purebloods.

It was worse than she'd feared.

"Ah, Minister Fudge." She forced herself to smile, rising from behind her desk to offer her hand. "Please take a seat, I've been expecting you."

"I should hope you have," Fudge blustered. "We've come for Black. Release him at once, we have Dementors waiting to administer the Kiss."

Jennifer stiffened, her smile vanishing. "Minister, surely you are aware of American legislation concerning 'Cruel and Unusual Punishment'?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"The American Ministry ruled that the use of demonic entities as punishment for crimes qualifies, Minister."

"This is London, Woman! Not the back woods of the colonies!"

"This is American Soil, by treaty agreement," She returned coldly. "Which means we have a problem."

Fudge was about to blow when the blond man stepped smoothly in, "Perhaps, Minister, if we were to guarantee that Black would merely be returned to Azkaban?"

The Minister looked between them for a moment, then back at Jennifer, who shrugged. No need to remind them that the mere presence of Azkaban's guards qualified. So long as they guaranteed not to administer a death penalty, it would make things smoother on the legal side of things.

"That would simplify matters on a legal level, in that case we merely need to begin extradition processes."

"Finally." Fudge muttered.

"Now, I'll need the court records of Mr. Black's trial," She began, only to trail off when the Minister went a very ugly shade of white. "Minister? Are you alright?"

"F... fine. Why do you need those?" Fudge stammered out, "Everyone knows Black was the right hand man of the Dark Lord."

"Aside from the fact that it's required for my paperwork, Mr. Black claims otherwise."

"Of course he would!"

"He has also volunteered to undergo Veritaserum questioning."

"Which can be beaten by a skilled occlumens," the blond man said smoothly.

"Which is why we have Master Legilimens on call to perform interrogations." She countered, rolling her eyes.

What was it with these people, trying to tell her how to do her job? Despite public belief, Veritaserum wasn't some infallible source of truth. There were many ways to spoof it, including Occlumency and Judicious use of Obliviates. Either of those could be detected by a skilled interrogator, however, and she had a few names in her rolodesk who were known to be VERY good at what they did.

"That being established, we'll need to see the court documents of his trial as part of your request for extradition." She repeated herself, "Access to any evidence you still have, his wand in particular, would also be highly useful to your case."

Fudge, still that pasty white, stammered again, "H... His wand was snapped."

Jennifer grimaced, but wasn't particularly surprised. That was standard procedure in Britain, as well as many of the old world ministries. The Pride would be screaming right about then, since American LEOs didn't believe in destroying evidence. Old World Aurors, however, operated on the other side of the debate, believing that separating a wand from its wizard permanently would significantly affect the wizard's ability to use magic on any level.

It was even true, in the short term. That was a well-researched effect, for several hours to days after the snapping of a bonded wand, a magic user's powers were severely reduced. American LEOs didn't believe it was worth destroying evidence of spells cast for most cases, however.

"Very well," She said calmly, "The court documents, then?"

When the minister continued to pale and didn't answer, an ugly thought crossed her mind.

"Minister, there WAS a trial, correct?"

* * *

Xander let out a long slow breath as he sat on the stone wall just outside the front gates, thinking about what had just happened. He was very possibly in deep, deep crud but honestly he was more worried about Wednesday.

Hermione had shown up shortly after the fireworks calmed down, but had immediately been hustled into the infirmary to see Harry so he couldn't ask her where Wednesday was. Most everyone involved in the mess was back, everyone except Lupin and Fenrir. Xander hoped his dog was ok.

"Well Mr. Harris, an eventful evening I dare say."

Xander started, then glanced back to see Albus Dumbledore coming up behind him. "Yeah. So, am I to be booted out of the country?"

The headmaster chuckled, "I think we can avoid that outcome, though I dare say you may want to avoid the Minister for a while."

"I doubt that'll be a problem."

"Indeed. I thought I would inform you that Miss Granger and Mr. Potter are both fine."

"I know. Harry was just stunned by the Aurors." Xander shrugged, "He's lucky they were competent. Cops in LA might have shot him dead for doing that, you've got to be touched in the head to jump in front of twitchy people with guns... er... wands. Whatever."

The headmaster chuckled again, "True, true. I will, in fact, try to impress that on young Harry."

"Good luck." Xander said dryly.

That brought a sharper laugh from the old man, "I see that you hold the same confidence I have in his ability to learn that particular lesson."

Xander just snorted.

The Headmaster sighed after a moment, "May I ask if you too support the story that Mr. Potter has told me?"

"What? About Black being innocent?" Xander shrugged, "Don't know."

"I see."

"What I do know is this," Xander paused, frowning for a moment. "Peter Pettigrew is alive. Sirius had Harry and his friends under wand point several times last night, and not only did he not attack them, he defended Harry. I also know that the ministry snapped Hagrid's wand for something he didn't do, then later threw him in Azkaban for something he, again, didn't do. You do the Arithmancy, Headmaster, what answer do you get?"

"You make very cogent points, Mr. Harris. This is why you gave Mr. Black your portkey?"

"The guy deserves a chance to be heard. I don't know if he'll get it at the embassy, but he sure as hell wasn't getting it here."

Dumbledore nodded, then frowned slightly as movement on the grounds caught his eye. "What is..."

"Fenrir!" Xander grinned, jumping up and rushing out.

He and the Headmaster rushed out to meet the wolf, noting that Fenrir was dragging the battered and bloody body of the school's defense teacher. As they arrived the wolf dropped Lupin's arm and barked at Xander.

"Boy... is that really you?" Xander whispered, kneeling as he looked the huge wolf in the eyes. "God... you look... big."

The wolf seemed to grin, teeth glistening in the lights from the school behind them and Xander grinned back as he lunged in and hugged the big wolf just as it shrank and reverted back to the puppy he knew.

"Most fascinating." Dumbledore said, looking over from where he had examined Lupin. "I don't believe I have ever seen a more complete familiar bond, Mr. Harris. Save perhaps... well, another time. Come now, I must get Mr. Lupin back to the infirmary, and you can't stay out here alone."

Xander nodded and got up, carrying Fenrir back to the school as the headmaster floated Remus Lupin along with them.

* * *

By morning, when most of the school was just learning of the excitement, Xander was well down off the adrenaline rush and mostly ignored the rush of questions. There were a couple, however, that he couldn't avoid.

"What did you do with him?" Harry was angry as he approached, his wand in hand and clenched tightly. "No one will tell me anything except that you did something."

Xander blinked, then looked down at the wand in Harry's hand. "You planning on using that, Harry? Don't miss."

Harry looked down himself, then flushed. "What happened to Sirius!?"

"I sent him to the American Embassy in London." Xander shrugged, "It was that or the kiss. He'll get a chance there, I figure."

"A chance? A Chance!?"

"Harry!" Xander snapped, "What else was I going to do?"

Harry slumped, but nodded. "I know. I... I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Don't worry about it. I get it, ok. If I hear anything, I'll let you know as quick as I can."

Harry nodded, "thanks."

That was the first encounter Xander couldn't ignore. The second, well that came from a different place.

"What were you THINKING you traitor!?"

"Gee, Draco," Xander didn't look up from his food. "I didn't realize that I was in any kind of alliance with you."

"You're a Slytherin! You can't go helping Gryffindors!"

Xander glanced around the table, noting that everyone was listening. "Dude, you're raving. You're also spitting in my food, cut it out."

Draco turned an alarming shade of puce, then slowly ground out, "Why would you help them?"

"Hermione's my friend."

"She's a mudblood!" Draco hissed, glaring at him.

"Wouldn't matter if she were a House elf or a Goblin, or anything else."

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it, it'll come to you eventually, Draco." Xander sighed as he pushed his food away and got up.

"Don't you walk away from me!"

Xander ignored him, or at least appeared to. In fact he kept one eye and both ears on the people around him. When a firstie gasped, Xander stopped.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Potter, Draco. Don't miss."

When nothing happened for a moment, Xander kept on walking.

Behind him, Draco was gripping his wand tightly as everyone in the Great Hall stared at him.

Xander, for his part, was just glad to be going home. It had been a long year.


	61. Chapter 61

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander packed up his things, thinking again about how Wednesday was. He'd gotten the story out of Hermione, and figured she'd be fine, but just the same he was a little worried. There was, however, not a thing he could do about it. He didn't even have a way to call Gomez to let the family know.

Xander paused, frowning for a moment, then dropped the armful of stuff into his trunk and changed it over to a different compartment. He pulled out a wood covered sketchbook and flipped it open, quickly drawing out some lines and then made some notes.

"Could work." Xander mumbled before dropping the heavy book back into the case.

The train was due to leave shortly, so he hurried things up and with a flick of his wand levitated his trunk, telling it to follow him.

He really loved magic.

* * *

"I'd say that Harris won the year." Daphne said idly to Tracy as they settled into their compartment on the express.

"If he's allowed back in the country." Tracy countered dryly. "The Minister was distinctly displeased."

Daphne nodded, conceding the point. The Davis family was closer to the Minister than the Greengrass', but it didn't take a genius to realize that the Minister was going to be unhappy if the rumors were true. Of course, the question was which rumors were true exactly. Still, Xander had managed to annoy the Malfoy's, the Minister, and at first it seemed Potter and his faction as well.

Now THAT must have taken some fancy footwork, Daphne half snickered. You had to do something really bad to annoy all three of those groups.

The rumor mill ranged from helping Sirius Black escape to assaulting the Defense professor, though no one was entirely certain why either of those scenarios would so annoy all of the above groups.

One firstie had suggested he did both, but that was so stupid he got laughed at.

"Still," Daphne said out loud, "assuming he returns, I think Xander has the edge now."

Tracy considered, then nodded. "Agreed. Daring Draco to shoot him in the back was brilliant... well, that or insane."

Daphne laughed, "too true. Still, it was in front of everyone, including the teachers. Draco couldn't do much, or even Snape wouldn't be able to get him out of it."

"Brilliant then. For timing and location, if not actual action." Tracy conceded. "You're right, I think that Harris has control of almost a third of the house now. Draco's cabal is... a fifth?"

"If that." Daphne shrugged, "Probably only that high if you count the fence sitters as being on his side."

"They may as well be," Tracy countered, "You know they'll come down in his favor at the slightest prompting."

Daphne nodded, accepting the point.

The two girls continued to offer point and counter point as the train shook and left Hogsmeade. It was something they did every year, for each house. When they got home, they would be quizzed by their parents and evaluated. Such was the life of a pureblooded scion of a political family in England.

This year would show some upsets, however. Slytherin especially, but Potter seemed to be moving into the lead in Gryffindor a little earlier than they'd expected, given his last couple years. For a celebrity, that boy was downright antisocial, and it had made them wonder if maybe he'd just skulk through his school years largely unnoticed.

This year he'd started to come out a bit, though, and both girls knew that control of Gryffindor was Potter's for the asking. All he had to do was stand up and take it.

Diggory was undisputed now in Hufflepuff, which was entirely expected. The Puffs were solid like that, rarely was there ever a real power struggle in that house. Ravenclaw was... confusing.

"So what do you think is happening in the Claws?" Tracy asked, finally bring up that house.

Daphne grimaced, "I have no idea."

That wasn't going to go over well, the two knew. Their fathers would be distinctly unhappy with the confused information they had on the Claws. Until this year it had been fairly clear that Cho Chang was heading the up and coming power, while the sitting power was the prefect, Clearwater.

Something had changed, though, and for the life of them they couldn't figure out what it was. The Claws were shifty suddenly, nervous. Paranoid one might say, particularly Chang and her group. The problem was, no one seemed to know why.

It was damnably annoying.

* * *

The train arrived at Platform 9 and 3/4s on schedule, and the platform was soon swamped in kids anxious to get home.

After watching Harry being hauled off by the overweight guy he met every year, Xander quickly found Professor Hardy where the man was waiting and greeted him as he moved over.

"Uh... Wednesday is..." Xander grimaced.

"She's fine," Hardy said dryly, "I was contacted yesterday. She shouldn't have left without telling anyone, but that's neither of our problems at the moment. You, however, have some questions to answer about your portkey."

"Yeah... about that..." Xander grimaced for the second time.

"Causing an international incident is NOT something we encourage our students to do, Mr. Harris." Hardy sighed, "Still, judging by what the Ambassador told me, you probably didn't have many palatable options."

"Couldn't let them suck the guys soul out, not if he was innocent."

Hardy nodded tiredly, "I know. Come on, you have some interviews to do before we can get you home."

* * *

The interviews turned out to be fairly friendly, Xander found, but long and pretty dull. Mostly just retelling his story over and over, omitting a few details to protect... well, himself. He didn't feel like letting them in on the map, it was his. Ditto for the Grimoire.

They let him talk to Sirius, perhaps surprisingly, and Xander found the guy to be in good spirits and looking better than he had a few days earlier.

"So you found the grimoire, huh?" The man asked with a crooked smile.

Xander nodded, "it's got me through school."

"That's what they made it for," Sirius nodded, then smiled, "Well that and teaching the art of counter-pranking. Lilly was scary good at that."

"Yeah, well I've done a few things," Xander admitted with a half-smile. "But mostly I use it for study."

"I'm having a hard time accepting that a Slytherin was helping Harry," Sirius admitted, sighing as he sat back.

"As I tell people, I'm a yank remember?" Xander said easily, "I don't have any house prejudices. Neither does Harry, not too many anyway. But I didn't help him for him, I helped him cause Hermione is my friend, and she's his friend."

"I don't know her." Sirius admitted, "What's she like?"

"Scary smart, her parents are dentists," Xander said, shrugging, "She's a girl, what do you want?"

"Your girlfriend or Harry's?" Sirius asked, smirking.

Xander threw up his hands, "Whoa, friend. Not girlfriend. Don't know about Harry, but I think the same. She helps me study, I help her with what I can."

"Right."

"Yeah, your Sirius Black alright." Xander rolled his eyes, "You know, your damn mongrel avatar destroyed half my notes in the grimoire? Rewrote most of the other half. Since they let you loose, I've had to keep my notes in other places."

"Bet you don't leave em lying around anymore, though?"

"Mutt." Xander growled, shaking his head. He sighed, then half smiled again, "You know what's going to happen with you?"

"Weeks of red tape," Sirius admitted, "After that... don't know."

"Well, they let you out to play, I'm from Sunnydale. California, that is." Xander said, "Look me up. Chances are I can get word to Harry for you."

"Thanks."

Xander nodded, then got up. "I've got to go. See you around."

Sirius nodded soberly and watched as Xander left, knocking on the door to have the guard unlock it and let him out.

Outside, Xander glanced back through the glass, and was surprised to realize that he kinda liked the annoying bugger. He'd lived with him for nearly a year, in a manner of speaking, and had long since gotten used to the mutt.

* * *

Sunnydale California.

Lord, Xander loved his home.

Xander paused outside Willy's bar, looking up at the clear blue sky and just let the sun bake him for a moment before he pulled off his long shirt and flipped it over his shoulder. He walked home like that, enjoying the heat he'd missed out on in Scotland. Heating charms were nice and all, but they didn't come close to matching the real, honest, sun.

He made it to his place, noting that a lot of the little things that had been broken for years were now repaired, and there was new paint on the place. Xander suspected that had come out of his potions money, but he wasn't complaining. The place needed the work, and his parents' jobs just didn't quite cover it all.

"Mom! I'm home!"

Jessica Harris stepped out of the kitchen and smiled, "Welcome back, Alex. How was your year this time?"

"Besides the escaped convict and the demonic prison guards running around the school grounds?" Xander asked, chuckling.

"Excuse me?" Jessica looked caught between amused and concerned.

"Don't worry, they weren't after me," Xander grinned, "I thought the school would have told you."

"Well, we'd heard something about Dark Creatures, but were told that you'd been given an emergency portkey and everything was fine."

"Yeah, basically it. It's a long story, though." Xander said, shrugging as he collapsed into the chair.

"Well, tell it later then, since it seems to have worked out."

"Thanks, Mom." Xander let out a long breath. "Hey Mom?"

"Yes, Dear?"

"It's good to be home."

"It's good to have you back."

* * *

"Xander!"

Xander looked up and grinned as Willow barreled in the door, bracing himself just in time to catch the redheaded missile that had locked onto his position.

"I've missed you so much!"

"Me too, Wills." Xander returned the hug, glancing up behind her. "No Jessie?"

"He's got a gaming night with the guys," Willow rolled her eyes, "He said he'll see you tomorrow."

Xander nodded, "Cool."

"It's not!" Willow grumped, "He's like... a big poopy head."

Xander tried to hold back a snicker, and managed to just snort a little as he raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I'm familiar with the term, Ms. Rosenberg."

"Oh you did NOT just go all Spock on me!" Willow slapped him, "And he IS. You just got home, Jessie should be here."

"Wills, I'll see him tomorrow. That's fine." Xander replied with a calm smile, knowing that Willow tended to get a little hyped up over small things. "Jess had plans, it's really no big."

"He should have at least dropped by." Willow grumbled.

"And yet, I'll survive the disappointment."

"Oh you..." Willow muttered, slapping his arm again. "Anyway, enough about the poopy head. How was your year?"

"Eventful." Xander replied dryly.

Willow looked a little worried, "Compared to last year?"

"Eh. About the same, I guess. I think my family is going to be a little worried about sending me back." Xander shrugged, "Assuming they'll let me into England now."

Willow's eyes widened, "You... You think you got kicked out of an entire COUNTRY? How'd you do that!?"

"God, Wills, that's a long story." Xander sighed.

"Well get comfortable, Mister, and start talking."

* * *

Telling the story again took a little less time than the last few shots he'd had at it, as he was now becoming quite expert at getting the basics across without wandering off into nonsense. Willow cringed and made appreciative sounds at all the right places, but this time Xander included something he'd left out in all previous iterations of the story.

He told her about the map, and immediately had been forced to pull it out and activate its magic. Xander had tested it in Salem during the brief stopover and found it worked even across the oceanic distances, and now he was pleased to see that basically on the other side of the world the map worked just as well as right in the castle.

"Wow. This is your school?" Willow asked, watching the few little dots and names that represented people moving about.

Xander nodded, "Yup. That's the Headmaster there, in his office. He's like Merlin from the Disney version of King Arthur, only he's got a Phoenix instead of an Owl."

Willow giggled, covering her mouth quickly with her hand. "Seriously? You just mean he looks like Merlin, right?"

"Well, Merlin was a little more sensible in that movie," Xander admitted with a grin.

Willow started giggling again, "You're lying, Mister! Don't lie to me."

"God's honest truth, Wills." Xander grinned widely as he held his hand over his heart. "Dumbledore would be hilarious if he didn't have a reputation as the strongest wizard on the planet. I guess when you're that powerful, you get to have some quirks."

"Umm hmmm..." Willow managed to get out between giggles. "How about this one?"

Xander looked to where her finger was pointing and grimaced semi-comically, "Professor Snape, my head of house. He's not really very nice, but he's one of the top potions masters in England. He's in his lab now. If this were a Disney movie, he'd be the arch villain plotting the death and demise of everything good and pure."

Willow burst out in giggles again, "Xander! Stop it!"

"No, seriously, this guy could sub in for any male Disney villain you want to think of," Xander grinned, "He even dresses like a vampire."

She kept trying to stifle her giggles, resulting in a very red faced Willow groaning in pain between bouts of laughter.

"For all that, he's pretty brilliant," Xander admitted, nodding back to the book shelf behind them, "We have a couple potions books by him in our study wall."

Willow's eyes widened as she straightened up, "SEVERUS Snape!?"

Xander nodded.

"Oh My God." Willow forgot all about giggling, "The man is a genius, Xander! You're so lucky to be learning from him."

"Eh." Xander shrugged, "I decided last year that Genius he may be in potions, but he shouldn't be allowed near children on pain of death. Not until like, sixth year anyway, and only with people who've already earned Os on their potions OWLs."

Willow looked dismayed and shocked at his words, prompting Xander to continue.

"The dude can't teach, Wills." He said with a shrug. "He should be in research or something, not teaching eleven year olds. We had one guy in my year who was more scared of Snape than ANYTHING else in the whole world. Think about that for a second, Wills... In the last three years we've dealt with giant snakes, trolls, escaped prisoners... plus, this guy? His parents were tortured or something by terrorists back when he was a little kid. And Snape scares him more than all that."

Willow looked downcast, "That isn't good at all."

"Yeah." Xander agreed dryly, "Lucky for me, he mostly just leaves me alone. I'm in his house, but not important enough to show up much on his radar."

"You are too important!"

Xander smiled, "I don't think he rates things on the Willow scale."

"Well he should." She pouted, bringing a laugh to Xander's lips.

"Enough about school," Xander said after he'd calmed a bit, eyes dancing as he looked over at Willow, "Want to hear about this summer's projects?"

"Oohh! Yes!" Willed jumped forward in her seat, literally sitting on the edge of it.

"Let me tell you about my new favorite spell in the whole world," Xander said with an air of drama.

Willow actually groaned a little, knowing Xander's previous proclivities in that area. Stunners, bone splitting curses (GROSS!), and shielding charms. She loved her best friend dearly, but he was SUCH a boy. She swore, if it weren't for magic he'd probably be all into guns or something. Well, maybe not, it was California after all. Probably surfing or skateboarding.

Xander, oblivious to Willow's thoughts, flipped open a book and turned it to her with the air of someone unveiling a magic trick. "May I present, the Protean Charm."

Willow frowned, tilting her head slightly as she started to read.

This wasn't some fighting spell! In fact, she was puzzled more and more as she read, trying to figure out why Xander was so excited. When she was finished, Willow just shook her head slightly and looked up at Xander, who was looking back with an amused sort of expression.

"I don't get it."

"Get what?" He asked, expression turning innocent.

"Why this spell, mister?" Willow demanded, setting her own expression. It wasn't quite Resolve Face... yet.

Xander sniffed, looking put out. "You don't see it?"

"See what?" Willow asked, "Ok... it's kinda cool. I've read about the Familiarity Principal of magic, and this is obviously from that school, but..."

She shrugged, not seeing whatever it was that Xander was seeing.

"Oh Wills, Wills, Wills," Xander said, sounding disappointed as he tried to keep a long face.

She growled, actually GROWLED. Xander couldn't help but bust out laughing.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He held up his hands to stave off retribution, then hastily wiped his eyes as he took a few deep breaths. "It's just that everyone has that same reaction to this spell, Wills. It's 'neat' and sometimes useful, but so what? Right?"

Willow nodded slowly.

"Wills, the map is based entirely around the Protean." Xander said, nodding to the parchment still laid out between them. "It's the core of all the enchantments, without it nothing else works."

Willow frowned, looking at the map for a moment. "Really?"

"Really. The Protean is linked with the wards at Hogwarts, so what they report is automatically mirrored here." Xander said by way of explanation. "You know the story of the Dark Lord dude who was scaring the crap out of England back when we were born?"

Willow nodded, she'd read all the histories of course.

"Well his mark, brand really, that he put on his followers was based on the protean." Xander said. "It let him communicate with them, punish them, and all that evil overlord stuff."

Ok, Willow had to admit that was kind of impressive. You know, in a really squicky kind of way.

"Even so, it's just mirroring stuff, right?"

Xander couldn't help it, he laughed at her.

"Xander!" Willow complained, picking a throw pillow and reading to make it live up to its name.

"Whoa! Whoa! I couldn't help it, Wills." Xander grinned, "You of all people, saying that communicating information was no big deal!"

Willow paused, blinking.

Wait. Her mind suddenly shifted into gear so fast that it would have made a grinding sound had it been a car. The map was sending information across the PLANET, with no satellite relay, no towers, no cable. She stared at it for a long moment, eyes blinking slowly as it penetrated. She slowly looked up at Xander, eyes questioning.

"It's got limits," He said, "But as far as I can tell, range isn't one of them. At least not within any scale *I* can test. It's tough to cast too, but I think I can get a handle on it. So what do you say, Wills? Want to see what we can make of this?"

She nodded dumbly, mind still racing along.

Suddenly she jolted, "Xander! Do you know what this means!?"

He half smiled, "I know what I think it means. What do you think it means?"

"We can make something that lets us talk even when you're at school!" Willow blurted, eyes beaming.

Xander smiled fully, "yes. Yes we can."

And a whole lot more, if his thoughts on the matter were even close to reality.

* * *

The first night was mostly talk and a little behind the back plotting between Xander and Willow on what they wanted to do with the Protean spell over the summer, and various ideas they had on improving old projects like their wands.

Willow wanted to try playing with the cores, including dual or multi-core wands, while Xander wanted a backup with him at all times after the incident with the Dementors. Handing his wand off to Sirius had been necessary, but if more acromantulas had attacked while they were struggling through the forest he would have been a sitting duck.

They quickly sketched out some preliminary lists for materials and such, and plotted a trip to Three Angels in the near future with either Sam or Xander's Dad. Xander also wanted to pick up some scrap metals, mostly brass, bronze, and copper. All three of those metals were known for being easy to work, magically, and capable of taking enchantments.

Gold was good too, better in fact that the three Xander wanted, but he didn't want to waste gold if he didn't need to. Still, a small amount of it went on the list as a second thought.

The next morning Xander was surprised when Sam showed up without being called, and naturally invited himself to breakfast.

* * *

"Smells great, Jess," Sam Ruaidhri Harris grinned, taking a seat and a plate from his brother.

"Get your own, Rory." Tony growled, grabbing his food back.

"Is that any way to treat a guest?" Sam whined.

Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes as she prepared another plate and slid it down in front of Sam. "Here you are."

"Well, we know which one you married up in this relationship, eh Tony?" Sam smirked at his brother.

"What are you here for, Sam?" Tony groaned.

Sam ate some bacon before nodding his head over to Xander, "I hear that the family is already looking to get him back to England."

"That's what I'm told," Tony admitted. "Not too happy about it this year. Last year was supposed to be an exception. Not sending my boy back to that loony bin."

Sam shrugged, "You fight the family, you're going to lose, Tony."

"Not before Alex is done at Salem I won't." Tony countered, "I can hold the line for a few years."

"Maybe." Sam shrugged. "Maybe not. Besides, as much as I hate to agree with the family on anything... and you KNOW I hate doing that, they do have a point. Kid is making some powerful contacts in the old world. They've been contacted by the current Matriarch of the Malfoy family, and acting Matriarch of the Blacks, concerning him."

Tony frowned, thinking about that. He knew the names, but never really paid much attention to that stuff since, as a non-magical, it didn't matter much to him. Even so, the Blacks were an important family. Or they used to be.

"Blacks are gone, ain't they?" Tony mumbled.

"Not entirely." Xander and Sam said together.

Sam smirked, "Go ahead kid."

"Sirius Black applied to the Ministry for Asylum from the Brits," Xander said, idly nibbling on a piece of bacon. "He's the head of family, but I'm not sure what that'll mean in England."

"Technically he'll be Lord Black in Exile," Sam filled in, "I had to do some research in a hurry. Legally that limits what he can do in England, but he does have access to the Black assets and can make financial decisions through Gringotts. His Heir presumptive is that Potter kid that supposedly iced their last Dark Lord as a babe, one of X's classmates, right kid?"

Xander nodded, "Harry's sort of a friend. We've, what did you call it Sam? Bled on the same ground?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah. Changes folk, don't it?"

"Yeah."

"Anyway, that links the kid to the Blacks, the Malfoys, and the Potters. Lot of power and influence there, Tony."

"Which means dick all if the kid gets killed by some floating demon or sixty foot snake." Tony countered.

"Point. Which is why Robert has an alternative to offer." Sam suggested.

"Like what?"

"He called in an old favor, you remember Tommy Falcon?"

Tony snorted, "You don't forget the man who saved your life, Sam."

"Yeah, well Robert was the guy who got Tommy a shot at The Proud. He was discharged a couple years ago, starting to slow down I guess," Sam snorted. At eighty years old Tommy had been a member of the Proud for over thirty years. It wasn't a record, but it was well above the average, which rested just under ten. "Tommy says he'll give the kid some training, teach him to take care of himself."

Tony grimaced, "Damn it Sam. All the training in the world won't save Alex from a death curse in the back."

"No, it won't." Sam admitted, "But the truth is still that X isn't a target, he's just not smart enough to stay the hell out of the way."

Both men tossed glares at Xander, who suddenly became very interested in cleaning his plate. Sam chuckled at it, then turned his focus back to Tony.

"You know the Family is going to push for this, Tony. I don't like it much myself and, to be honest, most of the family probably aren't in love with it. They're bastards, but they're not into getting kids killed." Sam said, lips twisting, "The kid was just dumb enough to go and dangle something incredibly juicy in front of them."

Tony sighed, then turned to Xander, "Alex... you're old enough to have a say in this. I'm not promising to go with what you want, but I want to hear it."

Xander looked back up at them and considered it for a moment.

There were pros and cons to both options. On the one side, he was learning tons in Hogwarts, though to be honest most of it was probably OUT of class and could be learned in the States. Hogwarts library was one of the top in the world, by all accounts, even those professors he'd spoken to from Salem, however, so some things he'd probably lose out on elsewhere. Like his family had realized, Xander was making some friends and contacts at Hogwarts that were very influential in England and probably Europe, but Xander didn't know what that translated into in the real world.

The other side was obvious, Harry couldn't go through a school year without getting his ass into some mess that Xander had been dragged into two years out of three. Xander paused for a moment, then added in the Troll incident and upped the counter to two and a half years out of three.

That said, the only times he'd really been in lethal danger where his own damn fault. He'd gone after the snake cause it hurt Hermione, and no one asked him to chase after Harry when Black had grabbed them. Xander supposed that if the same thing happened in Salem, he'd make the same choice again.

"I think I'd like to go back," He said after some thought, "I know it's not as safe as you'd like, Dad, but you know what... the worst danger I was in, well it was my own fault. I chose to walk into those situations. I can't say I won't do the same again either, doesn't matter if it happens in Hogwarts or Salem."

Tony sighed, slumping in his chair.

After a long moment he nodded, "Ok. Tell Robert that Alex can train with Tommy. I haven't decided yet, but... it won't hurt nothin."

Sam nodded, setting his utensils down, "I'll set it up. Hey kid, I hope you've been keeping up on your conditioning... cause Tommy Falcon is full blood Sioux and he don't go in for lazy white man things like sleep."

Xander gulped, then squeaked out, "What?"

Sam left, chuckling deeply the whole way.

Xander just groaned. Why did he always get himself into these things?

* * *

At that same time, half a world away, a group of men were meeting for the first time of the Summer Season, with a long agenda to look over.

"I suppose the first thing we deal with may as well be the recent incident with Mr. Sirius Black." Said the man at the head of the table, eyes twinkling softly as they were wont to do.

"There's not much I can do directly against his application for Asylum, Chief Mugwump," The American representative said softly. "It's already gone public to a degree."

"That's fine, Marcus." Albus said calmly. "I'm actually more curious about the results of his interrogation."

Marcus Simmonds nodded, drawing out a parchment and glancing it over. "Mr. Black was interrogated by a Master Legilimencer while under the influence of Veritaserum that had been administered by a Potions Master. The team is one of our best interrogation duos."

Dumbledore nodded, waving softly to the man.

"According to his testimony, one Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters and killed the Non-magicals that night." Marcus said, "Our team confirms his statement."

"I see," Albus sighed, "Well that's that then."

"What will the British Ministry do?" Dietrich Blein asked, leaning forward.

"Minister Fudge refuses to hear any alternative to his constructed world," Albus said with a sigh, only his eyes seeming to express anything other than disappointment. They twinkled softly, as they tended to when he was amused by something.

"And how does this affect your situation with the Potter boy?"

"It does not. With Sirius as The Lord Black in Exile he has no legal ability to change Harry's status." Albus said with finality. "I can continue to keep Harry protected from his enemies."

The men around the table murmured, but in general nodded in agreement.

"Very well, then we let the Asylum proceedings continue unimpeded." Francois Renauld moved.

The motion was quickly seconded and passed. Albus couldn't help but suppress a slight chuckle at how fast many of the nations' representatives jumped on the opportunity to make a fool of England and, of course, it's Minister. Fudge had made no friends for himself on the international scene, and was burning more bridges with the inane appointment of Ludo Bagman to the chair of the upcoming World Cup.

Albus put those thoughts aside as the meeting moved on, and The Council began to debate matters of international impact amongst themselves.


	62. Chapter 62

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent catching up with Jessie and Willow, just hanging out mostly. They did some shopping, much to Jessie's confusion when Xander insisted on hitting a plumbing story for a large variety of brass fittings and the like.

"Dude, are you taking plumbing classes over there or what?"

"Extra-curricular project," Xander replied with a smile.

"You want to fix toilets as a hobby?"

"Just let it go, ok?" Xander asked, chuckling.

"Sure, whatever. So what do we do tonight?"

"Movie night?" Willow suggested.

"Eh. Seen everything showing, went with Jon and Warren last week." Jessie shrugged.

"Well I've got to hit some movies for sure, but I can wait. Bronze?" Xander asked.

"Sounds like fun I guess." Jessie replied, smirking suddenly.

Xander looked at him, confused for a moment, until Willow spoke up.

"Oh God, Jessie, you're not still chasing Cordelia are you?"

Xander choked.

"Cordelia?" He sputtered, "As in CHASE?"

Jessie flushed red, rubbing the back of his head, "Uh well, you see..."

"He thinks she's 'hot'." Willow said, rolling her eyes.

"But... the 'we hate Cordelia club'!" Xander hissed, "Jess, you were the Vice President."

"She grew... up?" Jessie managed.

"He means she grew *out*." Willow corrected helpfully.

"Willow!" Both Jessie and Xander sputtered, Xander half laughing as he looked at his suddenly blushing redheaded friend.

"Well... she did." She said, sounding a little petulant.

Xander couldn't help it, he started laughing hard, wheezing in his attempts to breath. He hadn't laughed so hard in months.

"It's not funny!" Willow and Jessie called out together, leaving Xander to hit the ground and roll as his laughter redoubled.

* * *

Once he'd calmed down the rest of the day moved along quickly, though Xander took every opportunity to torment Jessie over his new 'lady love'. That got even more pronounced that night at the Bronze when Cordelia did, in fact, show up and Jessie proceeded to chase her around like a bog chasing a bitch in heat.

A comparison Willow actually made, bringing another roar of belly laughs from Xander when she continued on to say, "It's no wonder he's acting like that, since she IS a bitch and, you know, acts like she's in..."

"Stop. Please stop." Xander moaned, hammering the table with his fist as he tried to breathe through the laughter.

"Will someone put a leash on this mutt." Cordelia Chase said as she appeared by Willow's side, glaring at the redhead. "He's yours, right? Keep him away from decent people."

Xander howled, tears were running down his cheeks as Willow turned beat red and seemed caught between giggling or sinking under the table in embarrassment.

"What are you laughing at, Loser?" Cordelia demanded, eyes turning to Xander.

Xander just shook his head, unable to speak.

Cordelia tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing, "Xander? Is that you? Like, when did you get back?"

"Yesterday." Xander croaked out, wiping his eyes desperately.

"I heard you were in an institute for delinquents."

Xander choked, thoughts of laughter gone as he stared at her with wide eyes. "Huh?"

Willow grimaced, "She means she started that story, she didn't hear it."

"I'm sure Cordelia didn't..." Jessie offered from behind the brunette.

"Shut it, dweeb." Cordelia snapped, then glared at Willow, "I don't need to start rumors, mouse. I start trends."

"Private boarding school, to be precise," Xander said, climbing to his feet and standing a little over Cordelia. He'd learned while dealing with Draco that sometimes you needed to take the high ground, any high ground you could. "I spend my winters in Scotland."

"Chyaaa." Cordelia muttered, disbelieving. "What boarding school could you get into?"

"One that only accepts students from less than one percent of the population," Xander shifted mentally into his 'pure blood' tone, unaware that as he did his accent took on a slightly British overtone. "Willow was accepted as well, for your information, but her parents didn't want her to be that far from home."

Cordelia felt a shiver run up her spine as the person in front of her changed from one second to the next, then glanced at Willow who was nodding glumly in agreement with Xander's statement. She knew that the redhead was a certified genius, even smarter than she was and Cordelia knew that her own IQ was nothing to be remotely embarrassed by.

She hadn't known that Xander was anything special, though. He'd never acted it, yet now he's apparently been spending the last three years in an exclusive boarding school that had tried to recruit Rosenberg as well.

"Well, it's been a pleasure, Miss Chase," Xander said, still deep in the persona he'd cultivated for shutting Draco down, "however I'm here to have a little fun. Willow, would you care to dance?"

Willow flushed again, but nodded dumbly as Xander extended a hand. She took it and he led her out to the dance floor as the band swung into a heavy hitting tribal sound.

"That was great!" Willow yelled in his ear to be heard over the music.

Xander grinned, dropping out of the 'pure blood' act and looking a little goofy again, "Thanks. It was kinda cool wasn't it?"

Willow nodded as they danced, grinning widely.

* * *

All in all it was a fun night that Xander regretted having to end early due to his scheduled meeting with Robert, Sam, and their friend Tommy Falcon in the morning.

A morning that came all to early, Xander found, when Sam woke him up and gave him five minutes to get dressed before hustling him out of the house and into the car that took them to Roberts place just north of LA.

"Alexander." Robert nodded once in greeting.

"Hey Robert, how's it going?"

"Fine. I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine." Robert nodded to a six foot two tall American Indian beside him, "This is Thomas Chayton of the Sioux Tribe. I believe Sam told you a bit about it."

"A bit," Xander nodded, "but I don't really know much about it and all. I mean, the Proud are like what? The FBI?"

Thomas nodded, "Somewhat. The Proud are the Federal level Auror organization for the American Ministry. From a non-magical point of view they are more accurately compared with the US Marshals of a hundred and fifty years ago, except that The Proud have much, much, tougher requirements to join. The federal mandate for the group limits them to precisely one hundred members."

"Thomas served for thirty years," Robert said, "Which means that in his first year he beat out over eight thousand applicants for the position. In the remaining twenty nine, he continued to place above all other applicants to hold his position, and retired by his own choice four years ago."

"I was slowing down," Thomas admitted with a shrug, "I would have been replaced in a few years anyway."

Xander blinked, then whistled. "Whoa. And you're going to show me how to fight?"

"If you wish it," Thomas nodded. "It will not be easy, but if you're willing we can drill the basics into in a few weeks. True skill takes years, but even the basics can level the field of combat for a few seconds."

"And in a fight, a few seconds is often all you get." Robert spoke up.

Xander nodded, swallowing, "I'm willing. I know the shield charm and..."

"We won't be using that." Thomas said, shaking his head.

"But... it's one of my best spells." Xander blurted.

"I tell you what," The former Auror said with a slight hint of a smile, "When you can shield a curse, then return fire in the same second... then I'll start teaching you proper shielding techniques. Until then, shields are only useful if you're withdrawing from the fight, and while that is often the intelligent thing to do, there is little I could do to teach you how to do that any better than you should already know."

"Oh." Xander said, trying really hard not to pout, "Then what do we work on?"

"The three C's," The Native American said, "Curses, Conditioning, and Consciousness. We work on your spell repertoire, your physical and magical strength, and your situational awareness."

"Ok." Xander blinked. "Which will mean what?"

Sam snorted, grinning, "Pain. It'll mean pain, kid."

Thomas spared the former Seal a glare, then looked back at Xander. "He is correct, but that is an unfortunate side effect. For the Curses segment we'll work with the most useful tactical spells for beginners. What are your best offensive spells?"

"I'm a decent hand with the Stunner, but I prefer bone splitters." Xander replied.

Thomas nodded in approval, "Good picks. The Stunner is very useful in crowd situations, members of the Proud are trained to open with wide area stunners when we have targets in a crowd. Taking out civilians is the primary intent, but if we get a Crim or two it's a bonus. In a straight up fight against medium to large numbers, however, stunners are less effective because the enemies can be enervated."

Xander nodded, it made sense.

"The bone splitter is a damn good pick for a kid," Thomas went on, "Most tend to think of the Reductor curse, which really requires a very good wand hand to use safely. We'll teach you the Bone Fragmentation curse to go with it, though, because while it's harder to fix a split bone than enervate a stunned target, it's still a tactical option."

Xander stared for a moment, unwinding the words, then nodded. "Uh. Ok."

"So, out spell training will be... Bone fragmentation, splitter, the Severing charm, and Leviosa." Thomas decided, mentally making notes.

"Wait, Leviosa?" Xander blinked, "A Levitation charm?"

Thomas smirked slightly, "one of the most useful combat spells to learn, kid."

"I'm going to drop people off cliffs or something?"

"You'll see." The Sioux Indian said, "If you're really good, I'll even throw in the banishing charm to complete the combo, but you'll have to show me that you're serious and know what you're doing."

"Uh... ok." Xander just looked confused.

"Don't worry, you'll get it. For conditioning, well half of that will be easy enough I hope. Sam here tells me that you've been training with him?"

Xander nodded, "Yeah, and I've tried to keep it up in the winter too... but it's hard. Scotland gets damn cold."

Sam snorted, "Kid, you've got a lot to learn."

"That's fine, we'll work it out." Thomas cut off a rant from the former Seal. "Magical Conditioning will be covered in our fight training for the most part, though we'll work with some high power spells to see just how far you can go. Mostly we'll just be trying to determine your limits, but if you keep up Magical Strength Training you'll be able to squeeze another ten percent out of your core, maybe twelve. Understand?"

"Like working out, right?" Xander said questioningly.

"Precisely. Though you tend to get less out of it with MST compared to heavy duty Physical Conditioning, you also won't lose it once you've gained it." Thomas explained, "Magical core levels never drop unless affected by an outside source."

"Cool."

"And that brings us to Consciousness," The former Auror said, "We'll start that today, though we probably won't see much out of it anytime soon."

"Why?"

"It begins with Occlumency, which is a method of meditation and organizing your mind. It'll take you weeks or months just to get the basics down." Thomas explained, "Then more months building mental defenses, then more months reorganizing your sense feeds."

"Bwuh?" Xander was completely and totally lost, and didn't mind admitting it.

Luckily for him Thomas hadn't expected him to know any of what that meant. "Occlumency has several initial benefits that you'll see fairly quickly, this includes an apparent increase in intelligence."

"Cool." Xander said, eyes wide.

"You won't actually be any smarter," Thomas smirked, "But you'll process information faster and more efficiently. The next benefit is something approaching total recall, though not quite as effective as the phenomenon known as 'photographic memory'. You'll be able to remember just about anything you need to, but unless you already have a perfect memory you'll need to pause a moment to center yourself."

"Still cool."

"Next is the ability to sense intrusions into your mind and begin to defend against them. Mind readers, Possession spirits and demons, and so forth. Useful, but not commonly needed, which is one of the reasons Occlumency has faded into obscurity." Thomas said, "At this point you'll begin to train in Legilimency, often mistakenly called the art of mind reading."

"Whoa, like Prof X? Triple Cool!" Xander grinned.

"Legilimency is high restricted." Thomas snapped, glancing at Robert who just shrugged. "Normally I would never show it to a civilian, especially not a pubescent boy. However, you have powerful patrons, which will probably be enough to keep you out of prison as long as you don't do anything spectacularly stupid."

Wide eyed, Xander slumped and fell back a step. "What's so bad about it?"

"Legilimency can be used to violently tear through someone's mind, causing mental and emotional trauma best compared to being raped." Thomas said remorselessly, glaring at Xander and daring him to be excited about that.

"Whoa. Ok, I don't think I want to learn that ok?"

Interesting. The former Auror looked at the boy, taking in everything about him, and concluded that he meant it. Most would be promising not to abuse it, not refusing to learn it. He softened just slightly.

"It can also be used as part of an extended awareness of the world around you." Thomas said, "taking in more information... temperature shifts, sounds above and below normal hearing range, powerful thoughts being broadcast by people who are excited or nervous. All of these things are very useful in a fight, and in other disciplines. They're also perfectly legal and considered morally acceptable."

"Oh."

"We'll begin with Occlumency meditations for the next hour, then you'll run. Tomorrow we start spell training. Agreed?"

Xander swallowed, but nodded. "Yeah. I'm in."

"Good. Robert?"

"Have a room set up for you inside."

"Thank you."

Xander followed the big man into the house, mind whirling as he once more wondered how he got himself into these things and, perhaps more to the point, what had he gotten himself into.


	63. Chapter 63

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Man, I have such a headache." Xander bitched as he slumped into his basement studio of sorts.

Occlumency work was a pain, and running afterwards was worse. The entire time he'd been trying to meditate and clear his mind, Chayton had been doing what he called 'probing'. Xander called it shoving hot needles into his mind's eye. It felt like he was being forced to relive memories, but just for an instant before suddenly his mind would be his own to control again. Chayton said he'd have to learn to keep off those light probes before he could begin any kind of mental organization.

Something about having to have a mind that could hold more water than a sieve before he started trying to decide what went where.

Xander's problem with the situation was Chayton's use of the term 'light' when he referred to the probes. If that was what he called light, Xander didn't want to know what heavy was.

He grabbed a bottle of tylenol from the bathroom and swallowed a couple tablets on his way over to the ratty old couch that decorated the basement. His parents wanted to put in new stuff, but he'd told them to forget it. Half his magical projects exploded or worse, so why waste good money?

Xander looked over at the mound of stuff he'd gathered for his latest idea, mournfully staring and willing himself up to work on it. Will power failed a moment later, however, and Xander just curled up on the couch and closed his eyes as he tried to block out the light that was sending spikes of pain through his skull.

"Hello? Xander?"

* * *

Willow let herself into the darkened basement, hesitantly looking around. Xander's mother had said he was down there, but it looked like the place was empty.

"Xander?" She turned on the lights, taking a step down.

"Ow! No lights." A voice moaned up at her.

"Xander? Are you alright?" Willow asked, now really concerned.

"Brain hurts. Lights off." He mumbled at her.

Willow turned off the lights, then slowly moved down the stairs. "Better?"

"Much."

Well, he sounded better anyway. Not much for conversation, though, Willow thought. "What's wrong?"

"Brain torture." Xander mumbled, sitting up in the dark. "Then the sick son of a..."

"Xander!"

"Mother..." Xander finished lamely, "made me go running while my head was pounding."

"Someone tortured you... then made you exercise?"

"Bingo bongo."

"Doesn't sound like a torturer to me."

"You say physical conditioning coach, I say torturer, it's all perspective." Xander sighed, tossing back another couple tylenol.

"Oh. Is it really bad?" Willow asked tentatively, now having a better idea of what was going on.

"Not so much with the throbbing pain now," Xander admitted, "mostly the light hurt my eyes. What time is it?"

"Just after supper."

"Oh. I've been out most of the afternoon," Xander said wearily.

"Is this going to be your summer?" Willow asked, kind of afraid of the answer.

"Oh god, I hope not." Xander got up and went to the bathroom, wincing as he turned on the light and started running water to wash his face, "You can catch the lights now."

"K." Willow said as she did just that.

She was looking over the pile of stuff Xander had been collecting since he got back, impressed and confused by the quantity and quality of it. "Xander, why do you want so many brass plumbing things?"

"Cause it's easier to transfigure stuff permanently if I'm just changing its shape and not its molecules." Xander answered.

"Oh. That makes sense. So why do you need the brass?"

"It's pretty easy to enchant," Xander said, "And I have a couple ideas I want to try."

"For wands?" Willow asked eagerly. She'd been carrying her two pack of wands since the summer before, but rarely got a chance to use them because she was worried about both her parents and the statute of secrecy stuff.

"No, well some yes." Xander said, pulling a stool up to the table. "I do want to try some different wand sizes. I'm thinking I want to see how small we can make them, you know for backup use."

"Small wands? Hard to flick, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but not for all spells. I'm thinking about emergencies," Xander said, "Shield charms barely flick at all, and stuff like stunners and stuff are almost just straight line slashes."

"True." Willow nodded, "Ok, we can do that. What else do you want to do besides wands?"

"Kick a certain Indian's ass." Xander muttered.

"Xander!"

"No yelling please." Xander winced.

"Don't disrespect the Native Americans," Willow huffed, "They were here first and we..."

"Yeah, yeah, stole the country. I remember thanksgiving at your place, Wills." Xander mumbled, remembering the last and only time he'd spent a major holiday with Willow's parents. Honestly, it was better to deal with his mom and dad fighting than listen to them preach.

She glared at him for a moment, then looked over the rest of the stuff. "So what's this all for?"

Xander smiled a bit, the first genuine smile he'd managed since early that morning, "That's a secret, Wills."

"Humph." Willow grumped, "I don't like secrets, mister."

"Too bad." He grinned, winking at her.

Willow flushed red, swallowed, and changed the subject. "What were your classes like this year?"

Xander smirked, recognizing the real Willow peeking out and demanding information on what he'd learned. "We mostly followed the listed stuff this year."

Willow nodded, relieved. The previous year she'd studied almost all different books than Xander, and while he insisted that hers were better she wasn't sure she really believed him.

"I think we got a little ahead in charms, a little behind in transfiguration overall," Xander went on, "Defense was mostly about magical creatures this year, though, so you're not going to be caught up well there. Too much practical work you couldn't do."

She winced, "Damn."

Xander arced an eyebrow at her, causing Willow to go red again.

"I mean darn. Darn tootin." She blurted, then sighed, "Look, Jessie's been getting a little weirder ok? He hangs out with Warren and those guys a bit too much."

Xander nodded, knowing that Mears wasn't exactly the cleanest mouth around. He was still amused by Willow's descent into potty mouth, but he could understand it. Not that he would let her get away with it without some ribbing, of course.

"Sure. I believe you, Wills." He said patronizingly, "millions wouldn't but I know my bestest pal..."

"Xander!" She screeched, right about the time he reached out to pat her on the head.

That drove a spike of pain through his still slightly throbbing head, and Xander grimaced as he pulled back and held his temples.

"Serves you right, Mister." Willow folded her arms as she glared at him.

"Man, I so have to kick that cigar store..."

"Xander!"

"Ow! Stop yelling!" Xander glared openly at Willow this time, "Damn it, Wills, that hurts."

"Then you stop being a... a... poopy head!"

Xander couldn't help it, pain and all. First he snorted, then snickered, then started openly laughing even as his head throbbed at him.

"I said stop being a poopy head!"

Oh lord it hurt, but it hurt so good at the same time.

* * *

Sirius Black was bored.

This was generally not a good thing for anyone within a hundred and fifty meters of his position but, as had been the case for the last 12 years, he was without a wand and rather limited in his pranking capabilities.

The American Ministry had seen fit to provide him with low level bureaucrats as companions, probably an Auror trainee or two in the mix but he hadn't noticed much difference between them. Other than that, though, they'd been remarkably generous with him he supposed. Room and board which, while not luxury, was miles above what he was used to say the least, not to mention the protection they were giving him from going BACK to what he was used to.

For all that, though, he was still really bored.

"Hey, Sammy."

Samuel Winston looked over, sighing, "Yes Lord Black?"

"God, stop calling me that. Exile and all, remember?" Sirius moaned, "I just want to know if I can get out of this place."

Winston shrugged, "You're still wanted to be on hand for questioning, but you're no longer under house arrest since the court proceedings closed."

"I can do the questioning thing anywhere, though, right?"

"No, you'd have to be in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco."

"Any of those in California?" Sirius asked.

"The last two are, yes. Why?"

"I was thinking about checking out a place called Sunnydale." Sirius said candidly.

Winston stiffened, eyes widening as he stared at Black.

"What?"

The croaking voice surprised Sirius, and he paused, "Are you ok?"

"Why do you want to go to the Hellmouth?"

"Hellmouth?" Sirius paled, "I... That's in Sunnydale?"

Winston nodded.

"The kid who saved me, he lives there! You let a kid live on the Hellmouth!?"

"Whoa, not our business where someone chooses to live, Black." Sam defended himself. "This is a free country. Besides, the place is only a little dangerous to your average Wizard. If you're going there, though, I should ask if you know your Vampire control methods?"

Sirius blinked, "Sunlight spells, cutting curses, and pure white magic right?"

"Plus wooden stakes, holy water, and so forth."

"Those don't work on Vampires."

"Not the Clans, Black," Sam said after blinking for a moment, working out what Sirius meant, "demon breed."

"I thought those were mostly hunted out."

"Not in places like Sunnydale," Sam shrugged, "They breed faster than we can cull them, and even faster when we try. We keep them out of most major cities, but some places like the west coast generally just reach a stable population point. We don't go out of our way to eliminate them any more unless they're being stupid. Just wastes time."

"Not to the people they'd otherwise kill, I'll bet."

"I told you, they breed faster when they're being hunted heavily." Sam replied, "Kill dozens of times the number of people they feed on normally. Magic is like that."

Sirius nodded, recognizing the truth. Magic had a habit of working to protect itself, in whatever form it existed in. Dark creatures were especially good at it, since they didn't give a damn what they had to do in order to live. Lighter creatures, unfortunately, were more vulnerable which is why many species like Unicorns had to be protected by Wizards and such.

Which, Sirius supposed, could just as easily be magic protecting them in its own way.

"I'd like to go to Sunnydale, anyway then. Just to say hi to the kid, if you don't mind."

"I'll set up a portkey to LA and we'll get you settled in there. Three Angels will be a good place to live for you, and you can run up the coast to Sunnydale from there."

"Thanks."

* * *

Xander tried to ignore the throbbing that had become his near constant companion over the last few days as he delicately transfigured one of the brass fittings into a grill plate. Doing magic while your head was pounding was TOUGH, so much so that Xander was putting off the complex work with the protean charm until later on when he was feeling better.

Honestly he had a lot of prep work to do before he got there anyway, and his original plans just weren't shaping up the way he'd hoped. Still, the new direction it was taking was sort of cool too, so he'd see where it took him.

The custom wand project was a little further ahead, though, since Willow could help him more with that one.

When he'd tried one of the mini wands he'd made, a carbon fiber shaft about four inches long, the results had been decidedly mixed to say the least. They'd used their normal procedure, and wound up with a wand that was pretty much useless for almost everything.

It was the ways it was useless that somewhat confused Xander.

With the Stunner, the wand didn't even manage sparkles, so it was obviously no good for curses. Given the small size and the fact that the core was Unicorn Hair, Xander wasn't so surprised at that.

Still, with that result he hadn't expected anything from the charms tests and, for the most part, had been proven correct.

Leviosa cast with the mini wand was shaky, unsteady, and basically too underpowered to levitate a feather with any security. Most charms were similar, but when he'd tried the Protego he'd received a bit of a surprise.

Xander and Willow had expected a thing, filmy, shield a little smaller than normal. Basically, a worthless waste of energy from an unfocused wand. What they had gotten instead was a remarkably solid shield that was roughly the size of a small dinner plate. It could actually block a fairly strong curse, Xander determined, but you'd have to be Darth Vader or someone to get the damn shield into the right place to intercept the oncoming spell.

Well, at range it would be simple to block slower moving spells, he supposed. Still, at range he could more easily move out of the way if it came to that.

So, sadly, Xander and Willow had shelved the mini wand concept for the moment and moved on to the redhead's dual core ideas.

That had resulted in a series of nasty explosions that blew the glass out of houses for half a block. Xander still grimaced at the memory.

* * *

A few days earlier.

"Xander?"

Xander grunted from where he was laying, covered in debris. His head was aching more than should be allowable by all the laws of man and nature, and he wasn't sure his ears were still attached since all he could hear was a dull echo of the world.

"Are you alive?"

He grunted again, sitting up, and glared at Willow. "If I'm not, I swear, I'm here to haunt you."

"How was I to know!?" She wailed, "I couldn't have known!"

"Note to self," Xander muttered, shaking his head, "Dragon Heart string and Unicorn hair do NOT mix."

"Christ! Boy! Are you ok down there!?"

"We're fine, dad!" Xander called out as Tony Harris picked his way down the stairs.

"What happened here?" Tony asked, looking around with wide eyes.

"A little mishap with magical components," Xander sighed.

"I'd hate to see a big one." Tony muttered, "This isn't going to work, boy. Another blast like that and we'll have half the neighborhood ready to string us up."

Xander winced, but nodded in agreement. "Sorry dad."

Tony shook his head, looking around, "Maybe we should look into a new place."

Xander brushed himself off, shrugging, "What are the restrictions on using the money from the trust Sam set up?"

"I think we can put money down on a place, but it would be in your name." Tony said, frowning as he thought about it, "but I was thinking about your mom and me. We've been fixing this place up, maybe we should sell it before you blow it out from under us."

Xander scowled at the smirk on his dad's face, "Funny dad, real funny."

"Property is cheap in Sunnydale, I think I'll start looking."

"Have a ball, Dad. I'm going to clean up."

"You do that. I'll try and explain to the cops that are no doubt about to knock on our door that my idiot son doesn't know better than to smoke around a gas leak."

"Hey!"

* * *

His Dad had been right, the neighbors were not thrilled with the loss of their windows, and it cost Xander a good chunk of his allowed spending money from the trust account to smooth things over. That left him a little strapped for cash, but he had most of his materials already so it wasn't bothering him a lot.

His additional training with Chayton was taking up most of his time anyway, leaving him with little left to spend on projects or even hanging with his friends.

That was chafing on Xander, a lot. What the hell was the point of summer if he was going to spend it all training like this?

Yet, he'd agreed, and Xander was loathe to go back on an agreement. Especially when he had an idea of how much Robert had put out to get Chayton to come down and offer some training. Plus, he was learning some really cool stuff too.

It was going to be a rough summer, no matter how he cut it.

* * *

"Kid has potential, Robert." Thomas Chayton said as he settled back and took a sip of the herbal tea he'd brewed. "I can see why you're interested."

"He's an outsider," Robert nodded, sipping at his own coffee. "The families want to play him like a plywood violin. He's proven that he's valuable to them, but most of them will toss him in the gutter when they're done with him."

Tommy nodded. He had some experience with the actions of the Families himself, and knew that they would use up and resource they could, and throw out what was left. It wasn't that they were all evil bastards, though some of them were, but most of the old families had adopted a frighteningly pure version of the American Dream as their creed.

Capitalism was a poor substitute for Honor, in Chayton's opinion, but one that had been adopted by the Harris Family in particular.

It wasn't surprising, he supposed. The American branch of the family had been established by a few individuals who had been exiled from their homes by shifting political winds. They'd been thrown to the wolves, in some cases literally, with only what they could carry to their names. From that kind of loss and poverty, you developed some serious issues, as the modern parlance went.

The Lavelle's weren't as bad, but they were also more Old World in nature. From a French line, the family had strong ties with Gypsy blood through Eastern Europe, and tradition was more than a word to them. Whatever Matriarch Lavelle had in mind for Xander, Chayton doubted it would be particularly pleasant. Family duty rarely was.

The Sioux Warrior looked over at his old friend, and wondered what Robert was playing at in this little game. The Squib was from one of the branch families of the Harris Clan, but had no real power in the magical world. Well, nothing official anyway. He was a politicing old bastard, though, and was probably owed a few favors similar to the one Chayton himself had owed him.

Robert was one of the more influential voices in the community of Squibs that inhabited North America, however, particularly within the military sub community of the United States. That was a powerful little clique, since it generally included a frighteningly high percentage of Generals, Admirals, and former Military personnel within any given Administration.

To be honest, the boy wouldn't add much to Robert's influence anywhere that Chayton could see. Though, one supposed, that another favor owed by a potentially talented Wizard was a very good thing.

"You're wondering why I'm so interested," Robert said, smiling as Thomas looked up, startled.

"Yeah, I am."

"Xander is family, for one, and I'm from and older school of thought than the current Harris elders." Robert said after a moment's thought. "You don't turn your back on family. I learned that in the military. I also think that Xander is from the same school of thought, though his definition of family is a little different from most."

"It's very close to the military definition, I'd say."

Robert smiled slyly, "Isn't it, though? If he can, he'll pay back any investment I choose to make... and then he'll keep paying. That's the way he is."

"I see. A good investment, then?"

"Very good, I believe. Especially if the families spend some time cultivating his new contacts in Britain. He'll be highly placed by default."

Thomas nodded, understanding the reasoning. He considered it for a while, then shrugged to himself. Mostly, it wasn't his concern what games the Families or Robert played. He had served with the Proud because he chose to, and not because he had some stake in the American Ministry. The one good thing about the Ministry for Magic here in North America, in Thomas' opinion, was the fact that they rarely meddled in the affairs of the communities they governed.

His own home was a small magical village within a Sioux reservation back East. As a general rule, they never heard from the Ministry, as they had their own constables and local government. The magical government never went through the unifying period that the railroad brought on the non-magical world, though he supposed that it wasn't surprising.

Thomas personally knew at least two people who had been present when Thomas Jefferson had given the speech in which he said that which governs best, governs least. Magical lifespans were long, generations equally so. The Magical world had not yet had time to forget that lesson, unlike those who ran the non-magical side of things.

He supposed that the Magical world was about two hundred years or so behind the Non-Magical, at least in terms of culture. In many ways the Magical world existed in a state very similar to that of the Old West. Most governmental power was spread out thinly, with local lawmakers largely in charge of their own areas.

It was, to his mind, exactly the way he wanted it to be.

Thomas shook his mind free of the wanderings and looked back to Robert, "Alright. The kid has potential, good reflexes, decent mind, solid power. He won't be a duelist in the time we have, by any standard, but he'll be a pretty fair wand hand for his age."

"Good, good."

"One thing," Thomas said after a moment.

"What's that?"

"Those wands of his, the ones he makes?"

Robert glanced over, "Yes?"

"Get him a registry signup as a wand crafter."

"I thought they weren't as good as normal wands?" Robert frowned.

"They're not, though they may be some day. That's not the point, though. A wand maker is legally permitted to carry heavy in any member nation of the ICW." Thomas said, "they have to be able to show their wares, after all. Britain restricts wand ownership to one registered wand, though they have all kinds of loopholes for legacy wands, of course."

"Of course, wouldn't do for pure bloods to have to give up their parents wands."

Thomas nodded, "I don't know if his experiments with carbon fiber of all things will be of any value, but carrying heavy is. He can make working wands, so he'll be able to pass the registration test."

"Got it. Alright, I'll get paperwork pushed through, shouldn't be too hard." Robert shrugged, "The family will be looking for anything they can use to make Alex more valuable to them."

"Good."


	64. Chapter 64

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Sirius looked around his new flat, that is his new apartment, with satisfaction. The Goblins had dutifully transferred a portion of his funds to the American Branch, more than enough to see to his needs, and he'd settled on a nice one bedroom loft overlooking the main park in the center of Three Angels.

The magical energy that crackled through the area was amazing, he had to admit. He'd only felt it's like at Hogwarts, and Sirius would be hard pressed to say that Hogwarts was stronger. The Geomantic energies from the Ring of Fire location were immense, and he had to admit that the Americans had put it to good use.

Three Angels was dozens of times the size of the Magical Centers in London or Paris, both of which he was intimately familiar with. In fact it *wasted* more space than either of those places even had with its immense magical park that actually housed many magical creatures native to the region. Back home reserves like this would be cut out of unused land, not expanded Wizarding Space in the center of a muggle city!

He shook his head clear and went over the list of things he needed to get done once more. Finding Harris wasn't too hard, the kid had given him everything but his street address, and as it turned out the Ministry here had his Floo address listed in the public directory.

Next he had to see if he could get a hold of Harry, or rather the best way to do so. Owls across the pond weren't the best way to go, but at the very least he should be able to send a message back with Harris, assuming the kid didn't get kicked out of England for helping him. Either way, he had some work to do.

* * *

Xander rubbed his temples as he set his wand down, focusing on the identical devices he had crafted using brass fittings, old bronze trophies, and some gold coins he'd managed to get his hands on. They didn't look much like what he had envisioned when he started out, but just the same the little buggers looked pretty cool.

The Protean had been cast, twice, and he was feeling pretty much tapped out but happy all the same. Now all he needed to do was finish up the second phase of the project.

He set aside the two devices, content with the work so far and turned to the pile of Lego Technix he'd bought from Toys R Us, letting his mind clear as he worked with the mechanical blocks.

Occlumency was a bore, but sometimes he could just see what Thomas was talking about. Momentary flashes where Xander felt like he was able to see for the first time in his entire life, like the big picture was just in his grasp after a lifetime of seeing nothing but narrow flashes. Such moments were difficult to maintain, however and faded really quickly.

Thomas told him that as he continued to improve, he'd be able to hold those moments longer and once he began training in Legilimency, they would be even more intense. Xander wasn't sure he could handle *more* intense.

"Alex!" His mother called down. "Floo Call!"

Xander jumped up, moving before his mind had fully caught up to his body, and was halfway up the stairs before he realized he was moving.

Weird.

He shuddered, but kept moving. Sometimes the mental disconnect that was part of Occlumency training was disconcerting.

He waved to his Mom as he headed for the living room and pulled up a sofa chair as he leaned in close to the flame and smiled.

"Wednesday!" He called, "How are you? Did you get clear ok? Jeeze, it's been weeks..."

"I am fine." The Addams scion said with a hint of a smile, "And everything went well. Buckbeak is now happily roaming with a herd on one of the Addams' Clan habitats in Eastern Europe."

"Cool. Glad to hear it, so you didn't get into trouble?"

"My parents were pleased with my initiative."

Xander chuckled, unsurprised.

"May I come through?"

"Sure, come on," Xander jumped up and pushed the chair back.

The flames flickered for a moment, then roared out in a rush, and Wednesday stepped calmly through and idly brushed the soot from her clothes.

"It's good to see you," Xander gave her a quick hug.

Wednesday stiffened slightly, a look of momentary surprise floating across her face, but she returned the embrace quickly and nodded as they parted. "You as well."

"So," The girl went on a moment later, "Are you in trouble for your actions?"

"Nah, looks like I'm in the clear." Xander said, frowning slightly, "From what I've been told the Minister has dropped any complaints against me, at the request of the Malfoys."

That too surprised Wednesday as the two headed down to the basement, "I must admit to being surprised. Headmaster Dumbledore, I would expect perhaps, but not the Malfoys."

"I think it's Narcissa," Xander said thoughtfully, "Remember, she and I have been communicating through the Grimoire since first year, plus she really wanted to save Sirius."

"Oh?"

"Last of his blood line," Xander explained, "From the notes she left, he's the last of the main Black Family, and the only person left alive with the full measure of the Black's ability to sense Magic. Sirius was a Curse breaker for the Auror division back during the war."

"Impressive." Wednesday allowed, understanding the motivations of Narcissa Malfoy now. "She's trying to continue the line, then."

"Probably," Xander nodded.

"Still, be wary of the Malfoy's, Xander. We have not seen particularly worthy attributes in either of the two we have met in person."

Xander nodded again, "yeah. Don't worry I will."

"Good." Wednesday looked over the work table and frowned, "What is this?"

"You like?" Xander scooped up one of the objects on the table and tossed it to her.

"What is it?" She asked, turning the metallic object over in her hand.

It was a small box, perhaps the size of four match boxes glued together, with a metallic grill on one side. She thumbed the grill slightly and noticed that it flipped open, so she pushed it all the way up. Underneath it was a series of concentric circles with runes laid out evenly around them and, as she explored with her thumb, she found that the circles turned easily.

"Check it out," Xander said, picking up the other one and flipping it open. He twisted the circles easily, then thumbed down the rune in the center.

Wednesday was surprised when the one in her hand whistled softly.

"Put to your ear," Xander said, putting his own up.

She did as she was bade and was surprised when Xander's next words came from the metal grill.

"I call it a Spell Phone." he grinned at her.

Surprised or not, Wednesday groaned slightly and lowered the device as she pinched her nose. "You do not."

"Sure I do, why not?" Xander smirked.

"You are a simple little being, you know that right?"

Xander nodded in agreement, "Hey it was that or go with my original plan and call it a Kirk Special."

She blinked, then looked at the device again, and winced a second time. It was indeed clearly based on the communicators from the original Star Trek series, though the solid brass and bronze work, as well as the various additions, gave it a unique appearance all the same.

"Show me your work," She said after a moment, impressed with the design and detail of the construction, if not with its name.

Xander grinned wide and flipped open his note book, "It's not that tough. The hardest part was casting the Protean."

"It is NEWT level," She commented.

"Yeah, seriously. I screwed it up three times before I got the first one right. Four more times before the second one worked," Xander sighed, "Ruined seven 'home' runes."

"Home Runes?"

"The center rune," He explained, "it's what primarily identifies each phone. The protean only connects identical objects, right?"

She nodded. The Protean was based on the Similarity Principal of magic, so by extension only objects that were 'similar' were connected by the spell.

"Well the rings let you dial a specific phone," Xander explained, "Using the home rune as the keystone. That way we don't wind up with one huge party line."

"Impressive." Wednesday allowed, "You plan to make more?"

He nodded, "Yeah. One for you and one for Willow at least. These two are for me."

"Why two?"

Xander grinned, "That's the brilliant part."

"Somehow I'm now frightened." She told him blandly.

"I'll show you when I'm done. I guess we'll need one for Hermione too," Xander said after a moment, "And if her then Harry and probably Ron."

"You could sell them," Wednesday suggested, "Surely they'd be in demand?"

"Illegal." Xander shrugged, "Just owning one is kind of borderline in Britain. We're ok here, but we still can't sell them."

"Really? Why?"

"Not sure, but I found it out when I was researching the Protean." Xander explained, "The law reads kind of weird, but basically it translates into making most communications devices that use the protean or similar magic a legal grey area. Basically you can make them, but not sell them. Which really means that very few people can get them, cause it's NOT an easy spell."

Wednesday nodded, knowing from experience helping Hermione enchant Xander's Map that the spell was quite taxing, and very intricate. She was actually surprised that Xander had only destroyed seven Home Runes in his attempts to make two working devices. She wouldn't have expected him to succeed at all, the spell was that difficult. She looked closer at him, then realized something.

"You've changed."

"Huh?" Xander blinked.

"Something is different about you." She said, "You're... calmer."

"Oh, that. Occlumency lessons, I guess. Been meditating." Xander shrugged, then frowned, "You can really tell?"

She nodded slowly, "it's faint, but the traces are there. Your magic is more controlled now."

"Cool. I guess it's working."

"Why are you taking lessons?" She asked, though she did approve, both of the lessons and the changes they had wrought already.

"I'm getting some lessons in fighting from a guy named Chayton," Xander explained, then frowned, "Though my uncle keeps calling him Falcon."

"Chayton is Sioux for Falcon."

"That would explain that." Xander admitted, "Anyway, he says that Occlumency and Legilimency are key skills to have."

"Indeed." Wednesday said, considering.

Traditionally the Addams clan had very little use for Occlumency. Few were the fools who entered an Addams mind uninvited. Few were the fools who entered invited, for that matter. However, she had to admit that if only a short couple weeks of training had changed Xander visibly, whether the skill may have other uses than mere defense of the mind should be considered.

She would have to look into it, she decided.

* * *

"So, it's settled then?" Narcissa Malfoy said calmly, her voice firm.

"Yes, Dear." Lucius replied, gritting his teeth.

Few were the times that his wife challenged him, fewer still when she won, but honestly there was no sense fighting her over this. In truth, it was a good move for the family, but it went against his grain to do it just the same.

"Good. We'll extend an invitation for Mr. Harris to join us for the World Cup later this summer." Narcissa said with a calm smile.

* * *

"Xander?" Willow called as she let herself into the basement, working her way down the stairs, "Are you here? Your Dad let me in!"

"Down here, Wills."

Willow peeked around the corner, a little nervous about entering the basement for the first time since she and Xander had, well, blown it up and all. Her fears were unfounded, however, and she smiled when she recognized the extra person in the room.

"Hello Wednesday."

"Willow," The dark girl inclined her head slightly. "It is good to see you."

"You too."

Willow found herself liking Wednesday, which was kind of a new feeling for her. She didn't have any female friends really, just a few she occasionally studied with. In school the only people who would hang out with her were Xander and Jessie, and since Xander left Jessie had been spending more and more time with his friends and she was alone a lot.

Wednesday was smart, but in almost every other way Willow could imagine she and the Addams girl were polar opposites. Yet, somehow, they seemed to get along well. Or at least as well as Willow could tell, since Wednesday didn't give off many warm fuzzies.

"Have you been practicing?" Wednesday asked laconically, nodding to the wand Willow was retrieving from her pocket.

Willow nodded eagerly, "Oh yes, I'm through the third year books and have all the spells I could safely cast down. That was most of them, but I wasn't able to practice a lot of the Defense spells."

"No, third year is dedicated to dark creatures." Wednesday allowed with a slight wave of her hand, "While you have many of those here in Sunnydale, I would not recommend you look for them alone."

Willow agreed with that, and shuddered a little. She'd read up on Vampires and found that she really didn't want to run into any. Supposedly the low order types located in Sunnydale weren't much trouble for a Witch or Wizard, but they were really nasty just the same and weren't to be approached for no good reason.

"W- what are you up to?" Willow asked, looking at the duo.

"Xander was just showing me his..." Wednesday sighed, "Spell Phones."

Willow scrunched up her nose, "Spell Ph... Oh Xander... you didn't."

"What? I like the name." Xander grinned.

Willow groaned, but looked on interestedly, "So this was the super-secret project?"

Xander nodded happily, "Yeah, and it worked pretty well."

"You didn't just magic from cell phones did you?" Willow asked, knowing that Xander could have bought a couple phones if he wanted.

"No, I read up on all the tries on that sort of thing and magic just fries them." Xander shrugged, "I started from scratch and made these."

Willow caught the one Xander tossed to her, eyes wide, "Xander! You should be more careful!"

"Why? It's practically solid brass." Xander looked puzzled, "You could drive over that with a car and not break it."

"It looks like a Steampunk Communicator from Star Trek," She noted, half with distaste and half with the sort of bubbly fan awe that wanted to jump up and scream 'Awesome!' to the whole world.

"Steampunk?" Xander questioned, "What ARE you reading now, Wills."

"Never mind," She blushed a little, as she flipped the phone open. "Runic dials? What runes are these?"

"A bit a mixed bag," Xander admitted, "The runes are just identifiers, they don't do anything besides create a unique 'number' for each phone. If you want to contact another phone you just have to match your dial to the internal dial on that phone."

"I get it, good thinking," Willow praised, smiling. "You're making me one?"

Xander nodded with a smile, "Next one is all yours."

"Thank you." She said happily, sitting down. "Are we still allowed to work down here?"

Wednesday shot them a curious look at that question, eliciting a rueful grin out of Xander.

"We found out that Unicorn Tail Hair and Dragon Heartstring, not a good idea in a dual core wand."

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Honestly. Very few creatures would mix well with Unicorn, Xander. Perhaps Phoenix Feather, but very little else. Unicorns are far too pure and tend to react badly to anything impure."

"Oh!" Willow blurted, wide eyed, "That's why it blew up!"

"Blew up?"

"Heh, yeah." Xander admitted, rubbing the back of his head as he grinned some more.

Wednesday just shook her head.

* * *

Sirius Orion Black found that apparating to Sunnydale was a bit more difficult than he'd been told. The American Coordinate system was a real pain in the ass to learn, but luckily it was still pretty new and they had conversion charts available for the old Latitude Longitude system.

Sirius thought ruefully as he looked around the dingy alley that made up Sunnydale's 'magical' community, such as it was. The place made Nocturn look respectable, Sirius thought as he moved quickly to the marked exit into Sunnydale proper, noting a pair of hags watching his movements.

The seedy bar that served as the entrance and exit point for the magical alley was just as bad, and made Sirius long a bit for the homey feel of the Leaky Cauldron. A rat faced man at the bar just stared at him as he walked past, and Sirius paused just outside the door as a chill crept up his back. He leaned back slightly, just enough to catch the rat faced figure marking something down in a book he kept behind the bar.

Sirius decided as he moved on.

For who was a bit of a question, he supposed, but given the location the man occupied he pretty much had to be reporting to the authorities. So likely the Aurors man in Sunnydale, or one of them.

It was good that the Ministry had an eye on things in Sunnydale, he guessed. He wasn't happy about being watched, mind you, but it was the bloody Hellmouth after all. Sirius checked the street name, then glanced at the map he'd gotten in LA and the address he had for the kid from the muggle's directory.

' I hope he can get ahold of Harry, there's aren't many ways to send mail across the ocean without it being monitored by the Ministry. '

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy grimaced slightly as her stomach twisted in her belly. She had very little taste for using long distance portkeys. The things were bad enough in close to mid-range travel, but moving a significant distance was truly nauseating.

The alley she'd arrived in was not helping matters either.

"I can't believe people live like this." She sighed in disgust, carefully avoiding putting her feet in something that looked suspiciously like human fecal matter. "Absolutely disgusting."

Things were hardly any better when she let herself out of the Alley and into the pub that guarded its entrance. The place was filthy, lacking even the low class comforts of the Leaky Cauldron. Narcissa eyed the sallow faced figure behind the bar as he stared at her a little too closely for her taste.

"Look at me one moment longer and I'll personally transfigure you into something those hags back in the alley would consider... a delicacy." She said in a soft, yet sharp tone.

The man gulped and swiveled away, looking carefully at the other side of the room. "Yes Ma'am"

"Harris. You know him?"

"Which one, Ma'am?" The rat of a man asked, risking a glance back at her.

"The younger, Alexander."

"The Wizard, yeah, I know him."

"His parents aren't magical?" Narcissa asked, remembering that her son seemed to believe otherwise, as did she, though she had assumed that his branch of the families had gone the integrationist route.

"They're low magic, Ma'am. Didn't get into one of the schools."

Ah. That explained a fair bit to her mind. Squibs then, but probably first generation, still in fairly close contact with the Families. She frowned thoughtfully, "Both parents?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Both parents were squibs, and the boy was a fairly strong Wizard. Unusual. Normally Squib lines went generations before rekindling the flame of magic, if they ever did. These two must be exceptionally compatible in order for them to produce a boy like Alexander. She was quite familiar with the numbers on the matter.

Perhaps one half of one percent of the world population was Magical. The exact number was a little confused due to the tendency of magical communities to hide, but it couldn't be much more than that. Around thirty million people, worldwide. America had a slightly higher percentage of Magicals than most places, due largely to immigration, but Britain was close as well because much of the old families had congregated there between 1000 AD and around 1700 AD.

The total magical population of the UK was about three hundred thousand people, perhaps as high as four hundred thousand. The last two wars had taken a chunk out of Britain's normally high magical population, but they still rode above the curve. Of that, schools like Hogwarts served perhaps twenty percent, which amounted to perhaps forty to fifty children each year when it was all worked out.

The rest, those who were not powerful enough to attend a school like Hogwarts were generally home schooled, attended community education facilities, or simply never purchased a wand.

In other words, for Alexander to be in Hogwarts at all, he had to be within the top twenty percent of a community that consisted of less than a half percent of the total population. For his parents to both be squibs, well something had gone gloriously right for the boy.

She looked around herself with some distaste.

Of course, he lived here. The boy was certainly owed something right in his life.

Narcissa sighed, and shot another glare at the man whose eyes had dropped south of her face, "Where does he live?"

"What?" The man jumped, startled.

"Alexander."

"Oh, uh..." The man stuttered and stammered through directions, leaving Narcissa to sigh and draw out her wand.

"Wait, I..."

"Shut up." She shook her head, laying the wand in her hand. "Point me, Harris Home."

The wand spun wildly for a moment, then settled on a direction and Narcissa gave the place one last look of distaste before striding out into the open air beyond.

Willy mopped his face with the rag he kept on the bar, "Lord, what a bitch."

He almost forgot to note her passing in his log book.


	65. Chapter 65

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Anyway," Xander shrugged, "So Dad figures we need a new place, and me... well, I figure he's probably right."

The weak smile he gave betrayed Xander's nervousness on the subject, he wasn't really sure about getting a new hose. It was weird, but the place they were in had become something of an anchor in his life. No matter what insanity he saw in the Magical World, or horror he experienced with the Addamses, home was always there and never really changed.

Stupid really, he supposed, but that was how it was.

The girls were nodding in agreement with his statements, however, and Xander shrugged off the feeling of regret.

"He's right," Wednesday nodded, "Believe me, as an Addams I am quite aware that neighbors can had the strangest reactions to things like losing their windows on a regular basis."

"Right." Xander couldn't help but smile, thinking of the time two years past when Gomez had opened his daily routine by sending golf balls arcing over the old walls of the Tower of London and out into the city proper.

The sounds of car crashes woke him up multiple times that particular vacation.

"Anyway," He said, laughing softly as he did, "For the moment we need a new place to experiment. Especially if we're going to be blowing stuff up."

"Well, I'd offer my basement, but you know my Parents would be even less understanding and I don't think bringing witchcraft to my very Jewish parents is a good idea so maybe we should look for something else, I mean we could try my place if you really wanted to..." Willow slowly turned redder and redder as she went on.

"I think we'll pass, Wills, but thanks." Xander smirked, "Actually I was thinking of a place."

"Really? Where?" Willow perked up.

"Jess and I used to go there a few years ago to break stuff with slingshots," Xander confessed, "The old Junkyard just out of town, you remember?"

Willow shuddered, "The one with the rottweiler?"

Xander smirked, "That's the one."

The redhead shook, her head and her body, "Oh bad idea, Xander. I really don't think I like this idea..."

"Relax." Xander said, "We'll be fine."

"Oh, this won't end well." Willow said mournfully.

"Jeez, Wills, you're starting to sound like Hermione."

"Starting?" Wednesday deadpanned.

"Come on, grab the stuff, we'll check it out and see if it's decent. Last I remember there was only one guy working that place, and he's always at the front."

"Charming." Wednesday said, shaking her head as she grabbed one of the satchels Xander had laid out. "You do know that we could simply Floo to my place, right?"

Xander paused, blinked, then grunted. "Never thought of that. We'll call that plan B, K?"

"Why is the sane plan, plan B?" Willow demanded, "The crazy plan should be plan B. Plan A should not be the plan that gets us eaten by a rottweiler."

"You haven't seen the Addamses place, Wills. The Crazy plan IS plan B."

"May I point out that you haven't seen my home either, Alexander." Wednesday countered.

"No, but I've seen your family. Can you honestly tell me that the Rottweiler isn't safer?"

Wednesday considered it for a long moment, then frowned, "Define 'safe'."

"We're going to the junkyard."

* * *

Sirius checked the street against his directions and nodded in satisfaction. Right Place.

He was making his way up the sidewalk when he noticed three teens leave a house ahead of him, the boy in the lead someone he recognized. He was about to call out to them when the whispered voice of a Marauder nagged at the back of his head and he piped down.

After all, it wouldn't hurt to check the kid out, right?

The trio made a left, heading purposely onward, and Sirius tagged along behind them.

* * *

The Junkyard was chained up when they arrived, surprising Xander.

"It's way too early for this place to be closed." He muttered, glancing at Willow.

"Don't look at me," She shrugged, "I'm not stupid enough to come here, remember?"

"Not *normally* stupid enough to come here," Wednesday corrected.

Willow shot her a dirty look.

"Right." Xander ignored the byplay, "No big. We were breaking in anyway."

"We were?" Willow squeaked.

"Well I wasn't going to go up to the front desk and ask if I could borrow the yard to practice making magic wands, now was I?" Xander challenged her as he led them around back.

"Well... No, I guess not." Willow admitted reluctantly.

He led them around the long fence to a spot in the back he was familiar with and kicked the fence a couple times. "Huh. They fixed it."

He shrugged, pulling out his wand, "No problem."

"Difindo." He murmured, slashing his wand along the chain links of the fence, cleaning slicing a line in the metal. Then he pulled it open and made a sweeping gesture with his arms, "After you, ladies."

The two girls stared at him for a moment.

"How gallant." Wednesday said dryly as she ducked and swept inside.

"Right." Willow scoffed, "Somehow I don't think true gentlemen invite ladies to commit criminal trespass first."

"Everyone's a critic." Xander sighed as Willow huffed past him. He glanced around, frowning slightly, then ducked through himself.

* * *

Sirius smirked as he watched the trio break and enter the old junkyard, remembering similar forays that He, Remus, James, and Peter had gotten up to. He'd built his bike in a place like this, though by that time they were actually permitted to be there. Kind of took the fun out of it, though.

He removed the disillusionment charm and made his way over to the fence a ways from where the trio had entered, calmly casting a shrinking charm on the chain links and walking over the miniature section of fence and into the yard. Behind him the fence returned to normal a moment later, obscuring the Wizard from sight.

He silenced his feet and jumped up on a stack of old cars, recasting the disillusionment charm as he did.

* * *

"Ok, we ready?" Xander asked, looking at the makeshift 'lab' they'd setup across the hoods of a couple old wreckers.

Willow nodded, "Materials are ready."

"I have the blank prepared." Wednesday confirmed.

"Alright," Xander flicked his wand, carefully intertwining the materials. "I've got it, Wills... step back."

Willow nodded and ducked out of the way as Xander manipulated the materials into a tightly wound spiral.

"You have the recorder?" Xander asked.

"Right here," Willow said, holding up a huge old tape recorder made sometime in the seventies and charmed to work with magic. She pressed down the record button, "We're recording."

"Alright," Xander said, "Dual Core Wand, take two. This is Dragon Heartstring and Basilisk muscle sinew in a Carbon Rod Blank."

He carefully guided the combined cores to the drilled out blank, and found that they wouldn't fit. "Wednesday?"

The Addams scion carefully cast a shrinking charm on the components, allowing them to slide easily in as planned. As soon as Xander had it in place, she canceled the charm and they watched.

"Core is in place, doesn't look like the expansion cracked the blank." Xander said aloud. "Sealing it now. Shields, please."

Wednesday and Willow both cast Protego charms, letting Xander duck behind them as he cast the final charm on the wand to seal it shut and kill the suppression runes they'd used to keep the materials from reacting until it was done. Xander and Willow both winced, remembering what happened the last time they tried this, but Wednesday just looked on in interest.

The wand shuddered slightly where it lay on the old car, then rattled a bit as it seemed to glow and bulge, and then it finally settled down and moved no more.

"Do you think it worked?" Willow asked, eyes wide.

"I think I'm scared to find out." Xander admitted, "To be honest, I sort of expected it to blow up."

"Then why did you do it?" Wednesday demanded.

"Well, Wills wanted to." Xander shrugged, "After the first time, I figured we'd blow up two or three more, call it a failed experiment, and stick with safer stuff."

"Xander!" Willow slapped his shoulder.

"What?" Xander shrugged, "How was I supposed to know your nutty idea might work?"

"It is NOT nutty!"

"I agree." Wednesday added.

"Yeah, so that's two votes saying it's nutty, one vote saying it's not." Xander muttered under his breath.

"Two votes?" Willow demanded, huffing as Wednesday raised a questioning eyebrow at the statement as well.

"Wills, if an Addams thinks it's a good idea, you KNOW it's not only nutty, but probably explosive as well."

"I'll communicate that to my father."

Xander snorted, "He'll proudly agree with me."

Wednesday glared sourly at him, but had no counter to that statement. Xander was almost certainly correct. She sighed, "What now?"

"I guess we try it." Xander grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked.

Xander looked at his hand, "I don't want to be known as 'Lefty' Harris, if you really MUST know."

* * *

Sirius frowned in puzzlement as he watched the children talk back and forth. They seemed serious about something, they'd been using Protego shields there for a moment, but he couldn't see what they were looking at.

Weird kids.

Of course, if it was anything like the Marauders they probably had something explosive there to play with. If that was the case, Sirius kind of envied the boy.

The Marauders never found girls who liked playing with explosives.

Well, not until they got out of Hogwarts, but most of those girls were really kind of scary. And that was just to look at.

* * *

Narcissa sighed, frustrated as she got herself blocked in another dead end.

Muggles were obsessed with squares. Everything was square or rectangle, and the layout was like some crossword puzzle in the Prophet. Her spell only gave her a straight line of travel to where she wanted to go, and the muggles had gone and put fences up *everywhere*.

She should have brought a broom.

' I don't have time for this. ' She glowered, double checking her directions before looking around for witnesses.

With no obvious ones in sight she disillusioned herself, and started casting spacial shifting charms in front of her. The Muggle fences became very cooperative of a sudden, leaping aside to let her pass as she began to walk in a direct line toward her goal.

* * *

Xander gripped the pitch black wand tentatively, letting out a slow breath. "Ok, guys, stand back ok?"

"Xander..." Willow spoke up, sounding nervous, "You don't have to do this..."

He smiled at her, "Hey, two of the brainiest girls I know say it's a good idea. That's good enough for me."

"I thought my 'vote' was for nutty." Wednesday responded dryly.

"Nutty doesn't mean bad, or stupid," Xander grinned. "I never said Addamses were either of those. Insane? Yeah. Stupid? No. Ok, let's see how this thing works."

He picked a rock in the distance and focused on it, flicking the carbon wand carefully, "Wingardium Leviosa."

The rock wavered, then slowly climbed into the air under Xander's direction. He nodded slowly, then eased it back down. "Not as good as my Ollivander Wand, but better than the previous carbon rod based wands. About as good as our Graphite and Unicorn tail hair, or almost anyway. It's an improvement."

Willow nodded, jotting down notes.

"We didn't expect much with Charms," Wednesday spoke up, "this is beyond expectations, I believe."

Xander nodded, "Agreed. Ok, moving on to curses."

He picked a car across the way from him and shifted into a fighting stance as the wand snapped out, "Stupefy!"

The red colored blast crossed the space in an instant and crashed into the wreck, blowing out what little glass was left in it. Xander blinked and relaxed, "Whoa. That's better than I get with my wand. What do you think, Wednesday? Twenty percent?"

"Perhaps more. A stunner isn't intended to do much against steel."

Xander nodded, "Right. Reductor then?"

"You know it?"

"Just learned it, as part of my GOTH package." Xander admitted.

"Goth?" Wednesday raised an eyebrow.

"Gone To Hell," He grinned, "Thomas doesn't want me using it much, but it's there if it's needed. It's more multipurpose than most of my curses."

Wednesday nodded, holding out his Ollivander wand. "This one first."

Xander nodded and lay the Carbon wand down on a nearby car hood and accepted his Willow one in its place. He shifted back to aim at the same target, and again relaxed into the shooting stance he'd learned from Thomas Chayton. "Reductor curse, Ollivander Willow and Dragon Heartstring. Reductor!"

The energy pulse lanced out at the target, the theory of the spell passing through Xander's mind as he focused on the target. Thomas had been quite clear on that, insisting on teaching him the concept behind each spell before Xander was permitted to practice with them.

The Reductor was actually a modification of the Reducio Charm, it's more nasty intent and effect earning it a place in the Curse category. During development of the Reducio it was discovered that many materials didn't react well to being shrunk, especially if certain safeguards weren't put in place. The Reductor eliminated those safeguards entirely, so when the spell attempted to squeeze every individual atom of the target into a smaller space the spell only held for an instant before letting them all snap back.

The atoms jumping back into place snapped chemical bonds, releasing power in similar proportion to explosive charges depending on the energy the caster threw into the spell. Not unlike what happened when you applied fast and hard energy to a superball, you got a bounce in proportion to what you put into it.

In the case of a Reductor target, the damage tended to depend heavily on the material. Rock took harder blows, tending to shatter easier than, for example, flesh. The human body was elastic and didn't tend to explode as readily, though with enough power it would do just that. Mostly, though, Reductors tended to cause severe bruising and internal injuries to Wizards.

To cars, however, like the one Xander had just struck, the effects were a little more spectacular.

The door exploded, rupturing the frame around it, and shaking the old hulk as the front tire blew out and it settled down. Xander and the girls waited for the dust to settle, but they were all pretty impressed.

"Whoa." Willow blinked, swallowing.

"Yeah, first time I hit a car with that. Mostly I just shoot dirt." Xander admitted.

"Impressive. Shall we try the new wand?"

Xander nodded, changing wands, "Yeah. Let's get this done before the noise brings people. Wills, Wednesday, start packing up."

The two girls dumped their stuff into the packs they brought as Xander took a break and shifted his aim to the back door of the old sedan.

"Reductor!"

The spell holed the door cleanly when it struck, and for an instant that seemed like all it did. Then the backseat of the car exploded, rupturing the roof and blowing out through the floor, lifting the old car off the ground. Xander's wand hand dropped with his jaw as the car turned over in midair and crashed back to Earth.

"Holy Shit."

* * *

"Bloody Hell!" Sirius cursed, throwing himself to the ground as the debris flew by over his head.

The kids were making WANDS!

And damned good ones, from what he just saw. The first Reductor curse was a little on the weak side, the former Auror curse breaker figured. He'd had to blow through plenty of hard cover before, and knew that the door on a muggle car wasn't all that tough. It should have done a bit more than it had.

The second, though, scared the hell out of him. Sirius had only seen that kind of force matched in a few spell casters in his day, and exceeded by only two. Dumbledore and Voldemort could do better, he knew for a fact, but that spell was easily on Master Auror level. Mad Eye, James, maybe a half a dozen others back in the day could match it.

Sirius rolled over, breathing hard, and yelped in shock as he fell off his perch and slammed into the next car down.

"Ow!"

* * *

Wednesday twisted, her wand flashing into her hand as the other two walked ahead of her to the fence. Xander felt her move and looked back, eyes narrowing as he too went for his wand.

"What is it?" He asked, looking where she was aiming.

"Someone is over there."

"We've got to get out of here." Willow urged, tugging at his arm.

"Yeah, she's right. Come on," Xander said, edging toward the fence.

Wednesday nodded and followed, moving sideways to keep an eye out for the source of the sound. They made it to the fence and pushed through, moving at a fast walk while looking over their shoulder.

"Ok, calmly. Look normal."

"We just blew up a car!" Willow hissed, "How normal is that?"

"You've never been to an Addams party," Wednesday replied coolly.

"Look normal for a non Addams, please." Xander said through clenched teeth. "I would rather we don't get arrested."

"Arrested?" Willow paled, "Oh. Oh! No. No, that's not good."

"I think we all agree on that, Wills. Come on, breath, stay cool."

"But I'm the opposite of cool! I'm so totally uncool, and we're going to get caught, and I'll get a record, and not get into a good college, and..."

The slap of flesh meeting flesh startled Xander into turning, and he stopped dead with the two girls in plain surprise when he saw Willow nursing a rapidly reddening cheek, staring at Wednesday in shock.

"Get a hold of yourself." The dark girl said coldly. "You were beginning to hyperventilate, and if you pass out Xander will be forced to carry you."

Willow nodded in stunned silence, "Right. Sorry."

"Breath."

While those two were working things out, Xander kept an eye around them, but didn't see anyone coming after them. He took a breath himself, "I think we're good."

Willow was looking better, and they started moving again, this time a little slower. As they moved past the front of the junk yard Xander noticed a sign he hadn't seen before, tucked up in the window of the main office.

For Sale.

"Guys, I don't think there's anyone working here now. Look." Xander nodded to the sign. "Looks like they went out of business."

"Someone was inside."

"Could be anyone, Jess and I weren't the only ones to sneak in there." Xander said, "Come on, let's head home."

They walked away, but Xander's eyes kept creeping back to the sign in the window.

For Sale.

"I think I need to talk to Dad, and Sam. Maybe Robert too..." Xander said thoughtfully as they walked.

* * *

Sirius' ears were ringing.

His back was hurting, and he'd also bruised his leg, but his ears were really bugging him. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and followed after the kids finally. He didn't think he had the focus to cast a Reducio on the fence, so he snuck out the way they came in.

Damn. Either that kid was packing some serious power, or that was one hell of wand.

Possibly a combination of both, he supposed.

Still, it was impressive as hell for a bunch of teenagers to *make* wands, let alone make good ones. Sirius uncrossed his eyes and made his way back in the direction of the Harris home, pausing only to scourgify the dust and dirt off his new clothes.

"Blast it to hell," He muttered, eyeing a tear in his pants. "I just bought these. Never a good sign when you have to reparo your pants the same day you bought them."

* * *

"Ok, we have a curse wand that's pretty darned impressive."

"You can say that again," Xander smiled at Willow, who had recovered her enthusiasm as they moved.

"Now how to make a charm wand?" She muttered, frowning thoughtfully.

"Given our current selection of cores, that is a... tricky issue." Wednesday frowned. "Unicorn tail hair won't react well with anything we have."

"And Phoenix feather is almost impossible to get," Xander sighed, "But I'll ask around, see what I can find."

"In the meantime, perhaps if we try something other than Unicorn tail hair?" Wednesday suggested.

"Hmmm..." Xander nodded, thinking.

"Like what?" Willow blinked.

Xander smirked, reached out, and plucked a hair from Willow's head.

"Ow!"

"How about Hair of a Redheaded Genius?" He smirked.

She scowled at him, "Very funny, smart guy. Do you think it'll work?"

Xander shrugged, "Safer than what we've been doing. Who knows?"

"Agreed," Wednesday said as they arrived at Xander's place, "It's likely also time to begin trying as many core types as we can, and begin classifying them according to their strengths."

Xander nodded, opening the door, "Right."

"Oh! We can make a database!" Willow blurted, "I can set it up and..."

She paused, causing Xander to blink and turn as he looked into his kitchen.

"Hello, Alex," His Mom said, smiling, "You have a visitor."


	66. Chapter 66

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Narcissa looked up as the three children paraded into the kitchen, delicately sipping at the cup of tea Mrs. Harris had prepared for her. She carefully smothered the grimace that followed, tasting the paper of the tea bag with each sip. She recognized Alexander, who was surreptitiously moving to block the redhead from her sight, idly wondering if he was doing it purposely.

When his hand twitched slightly as it slid into his pocket, she knew he was. It was mildly impressive, but she was a little hurt just the same that he considered her a possible threat to whoever the girl was.

"Good afternoon, Alexander. Permit me to introduce myself," Narcissa said, smiling comfortably, "I'm Narcissa Malfoy."

He relaxed slightly when she said that, but didn't move away from the redhead. He just nodded, then turned away from Narcissa slightly.

"Wills, you should head on home. I'll call you later, K?"

The redhead, Wills Narcissa supposed, nodded hesitantly and backed away. 'I do hope that is a nickname, it's hardly suitable for a young lady.'

"O... ok, Xan. I'll see you."

Alexander smiled at her, and showed her out. What struck Narcissa was that the other girl, a dark haired and... dark 'aura' child, kept her eyes on Narcissa the whole time, her arms crossed and a serious expression on her face.

When Alexander came back, the dark girl uncrossed her arms, and Narcissa's eyes widened to note the haft of a wand showing just barely below where her fingers had been resting. 'Paranoid children. What has the world come too?'

"Hello, Mrs. Malfoy," Alexander said, smiling politely when he returned, "I must say that I'm surprised that you came all the way from England, is this about the invitation to the World Cup?"

"Partially," Narcissa returned the smile, "I see that your family has passed on the message."

"Yes," Jessica spoke up, pouring a cup for tea for herself, her son, and his guest. "Alex, Wednesday, please have a seat."

The four sat around the kitchen table, and an uncomfortable silence settled on them, leaving it to Narcissa to finally break.

"I was wondering, Alexander, have you spoken to my cousin since England?"

Xander paused, thinking on it for a moment, then shrugged, "Sorry. No."

"I see. He moved to Los Angeles a few days ago," Narcissa said, "The authorities refused to say more than that until they could speak with him."

Actually, to even get that much required a fair bit of bribing. It didn't take a genius to work out where Sirius would go next once he settled into LA, however. He only had one reason to move to the west coast, almost as far from England as one could imagine being. Many people might think it was because he felt a fear of the British ministry, but Narcissa knew better.

Sirius had been born with a crippling lack of reasonable fear. If he hadn't betrayed the Potters then nothing would stop the man from going back, sooner or later, to help his Godson. If he had betrayed them, then nothing would stop him from returning to the side of the Dark Lord or his followers. Sirius was simply that sort of person.

"You believe he's coming here."

Narcissa focused on the dark child, Wednesday, mildly surprised that the girl had figured it out with such confidence so as to state it, not question it. She nodded, "It seems likely."

"What does this man want with my Son?"

"I told him to drop by, if the government let him loose." Alexander shrugged, "Figured I'd get a message to Harry for him, if he wanted."

Narcissa nodded, unsurprised. "My cousin, man child that he is, was devoted to the Potters. The idea that he betrayed them never sat well with me, but all accounts agreed on it until just recently."

"Why are you looking for him?" Alexander asked.

"You may not be aware, but as part of his negotiations with the American Ministry, Sirius has been declared The Lord Black in Exile. He is, officially, the head of the Black Family now and as such has responsibilities." Narcissa replied, "I intend to remind him of such."

"The Blacks?" Jessica Harris frowned thoughtfully, masking the expression with a sip of tea. "Most Ancient and Noble family, Toujours Pur."

"Correct." Narcissa said, eyeing the woman across from her with new eyes. "I'm impressed."

"I took my education with the Families," Jessica replied, eyes leveling on Narcissa. "The Blacks are well known, of late, as a 'Dark' family."

Narcissa snorted, "We are a pureblood family that takes pride in our traditions. That's sufficient for the so called 'light' families to label us as such."

"Hmmm." Jessica hummed, taking another sip. "As I recall the Blacks were once well known as dabblers in Necromancy, Curse Wards, and... now what was it? Oh yes, wasn't the Torture curse created by a Black?"

"Evantius Black was a family outcast." Narcissa countered calmly, again surprised by the woman across from her. "You're remarkably informed, Mrs. Harris."

"Jessica Lavelle Harris."

That shook Narcissa, her eyes widening as she shot glances between mother and son. She'd known about the Harris connection, and was duly impressed with it to be honest. The Harris family was an old Irish pureblood line that once wielded significant power in both Muggle and Magical worlds. Not as high up in the Nobility as the Blacks, they were nevertheless a power to contend with before the family had finally died out during the Great War.

The Lavelles, however, were another story entirely.

As old as the Harris line, the Lavelles were never linked to British nobility but their links to lower born lines were numerous and deeply entwined. Narcissa's mind raced as she tried to bring up anything she could remember about the family, but most of it was buried deep in the passage of time. Lost, most likely, to almost everyone.

One thing she could remember, however, was that the Lavelle's were not to be trifled with. The family knew how to hold a grudge, and always repaid a debt whether it were one of money or one of blood. They were infamous for it, even if it took generations. It was, in point of fact, their family motto.

Totus Debitum Pensus.

Most who heard it thought it was an honorable ideal to hold a family too, the idea of paying debts. Narcissa knew, however, that the reference wasn't to monetary accounts. Lavelle's were known to annihilate family lines in pursuit of the settling of a debt.

Or, in the original Romany, Sor Monchimo Bog. It was less of a motto there, and more of a threat or promise.

"I see." Narcissa managed to keep her tone steady as she took another sip of her tea.

Alexander was growing more and more interesting with everything she learned about him.

Xander, for his part, kept quiet as he tried to work out what was going on between the two women. He'd seen enough verbal spars in the Slytherin dorms to recognize one when it was playing out in front of him, but he was missing key information needed to understand this one and it was bugging the hell out of him.

"Why does the House of Malfoy have interest in Alexander?"

The quiet voice surprised all of them, and the three others turned to the quiet girl who was sipping her tea coolly as she looked over the cup at Narcissa.

Narcissa took this opportunity to shift away from the revelation of the involvement of the Lavelle family and coolly returned the stare she was receiving from the child. "What concern is it of yours, child?"

"As a friend of the Family Addams, Alexander is of great concern to me."

Narcissa froze in place, hot tea scalding her throat as she forgot to swallow. Iron discipline prevented her from choking, but she managed to remain outwardly calm.

'Sweet Merlin.' She thought, her mind racing inwardly. If the Lavelle's were to be cautious about, the Addams Family was a nightmare. Possibly the ultimate Dark aligned family, they were known to avoid any dealings with society at large as a general rule, preferring to socialize almost entirely within the clan.

Those who chose to enter the clan generally vanished from the world with very little trace, as did those who chose to antagonize them.

The Family Addams was possibly the most wealthy clan in the world, though the precise numbers were simply not known. They didn't rely on banks to hold the bulk of their wealth, by all accounts, and yet their bank accounts were known to be sufficient to destroy small countries when an Addams was properly motivated.

This boy was tied into two of the most infamous family lines known to still exist. Narcissa carefully revised her thoughts, and began to run over her vague plans to ensure that they didn't do anything that might be considered... unfriendly.

Angering either family was unwise, angering both was something not even the most foolish would knowingly do.

And, of all things she considered herself, foolish was not one of them.

Narcissa was saved from further world shattering moments by a knock at the door.

* * *

Sirius slapped the side of his head as he walked, trying to get the ringing out.

Sometimes having the enhanced senses that came with his Animagus form really sucked. Oh, he didn't have the full package in human form, but one of the things most Animagus' didn't speak of often was the fact that their animal form had powerful influence over their human. Many wizards carefully avoided the transformation for that reason specifically, afraid of the loss of reason they associated with beasts.

An Animagus, however, wouldn't trade their form to save their life. It was integral to who they were, and the feeling of completeness that came with it was something that couldn't be explained to someone who hadn't experienced it.

That said, for a Dog Animagus, loud explosions really sucked. Especially when they came by surprise, and in close proximity.

He grumbled a bit as he walked, mostly to try and cover up the low whine he could hear at the back of his head. That was going to drive him insane if it kept up.

He arrived back on the street the kid lived on and was making his way toward the house when he ran into a girl coming from that direction, looking over her shoulder. The impact was minor, but in his unbalanced state it sent Sirius to the ground in a painful lump.

"Oh, sorry!" The redhead apologized, "I'm really, really, sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going, are you ok?"

Sirius looked up at her, recognizing her as one of the trio he'd followed and let out a sharp bark of laughter.

Figures that one of them would be around to finish the job.

As he laughed the girl took a step back, eyes widening as she eyed him nervously now.

"Sorry, sorry," He gasped out, recognizing that he was scaring her a bit. "I'm fine. Just having a weird day."

"O... oh." She said as he got up. "Ok. I am really sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I wasn't looking where I was going either." He said, smiling, "I'm fine."

"Ok... Uh... I have to go." She said, ducking her head as she moved around him and headed away.

He watched her go for a moment, then shook his head and headed up to the house his address for the kid listed and knocked.

When the door was opened Sirius smiled, "Hello, I'm looking for a Xander Harris?"

"Sirius!"

Sirius blinked. "I know that voice from somewhere."

"Sirius Black, you imbecile! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me!?"

"Cissa?"

* * *

There were days in a persons life when nothing seemed to make sense.

The sort of day where you arrive in a new town, follow some kids to a junk yard, and almost get blown up when they're testing out the new magic wand they made. The sort of day that continues on to where you run into your cousin, a woman who once tormented you to insanity as children and then became the wife of a man who tried to kill you and your best friends on multiple occasions.

Oddly enough Sirius Black was having that kind of day.

Narcissa had all but violently yanked him into the house, leaving him reaching for his wand before her rant penetrated and he realized that she was just yelling at him and not cursing him. Not literally at any rate.

"I spent MONTHS living out of Rosmerta's spare room you inconsiderate clod! What were you THINKING, going back to Hogwarts with all those Dementors around!?" She ranted, shoving him into a large chair.

"I-," He tried to speak up to defend himself.

"I'll tell you what you were thinking," She snapped, "You weren't thinking anything at all!"

He blinked, "But-."

Belatedly Sirius noted that the Harris kid was snickering at him from behind Narcissa. Somehow he'd been set up, damn it.

"Are you even listening to me!?" Narcissa demanded, noting Sirius lack of attention.

"No..."

Sirius cringed back as his cousin gave him a look that could have peeled the walls of Hogwarts down. She bared her teeth slightly, finally drawing her wand as she slowly advanced on him.

"Sirius Orion Black, do you have any idea how close you came to the Dementors Kiss?"

"Umm..."

"About a portkey away," Xander said from the door to the kitchen, smirking widely.

"Exactly!" Narcissa snarled, "Why on Earth would you risk yourself that way!?"

"I had to get Pettigrew!" Sirius blurted in his defense.

"That turned out spectacularly well, now didn't it?" Narcissa countered. "Good Lord, Sirius. You could have contacted someone, anyone practically."

"Like anyone was going to believe me!"

"Believe you? No. Dumbledore most likely would have at least checked if you told him where Pettigrew was, however. And you surely had enough old friends that a letter to any one of them would have at a minimum had them doing a cursory investigation." She growled, "For Merlin's sake, Sirius, even I would have done that much."

"You married Lucius!"

"And you're the Head of House Black!" She snapped back, waving her wand so energetically that sparks were flying from it. "Merlin, Circe, and Morgana! Do you have some kind of death wish!?"

"All I want is Pettigrew." Sirius growled out.

Narcissa stared at him for a long time, "And what of your responsibilities, Sirius? You're head of House Black..."

"To the Abyss with House Black!"

The smack of flesh on flesh echoed through the room and Sirius jerked back in shock as Narcissa shook her stinging hand slightly. "Say that again, and I use my wand."

Sirius rubbed the side of his face, glaring at her for a moment, "Cissa, I and the Family broke faith a long time ago."

"The family you broke faith with are all dead, Sirius." Narcissa replied coolly. "Your mother, your brother, you father. They're gone. House Black is You. You are House Black."

"Well then, I can't damn them to hell I suppose, since we've already been there."

"What about your Godson then," Narcissa shifted tact, "Damn him to hell as well?"

"Harry has nothing to do with this."

"How about Andromeda, and your niece Nymphadora?" Narcissa challenged, "Are they worthy of hell too?"

"Damn it, Cissa! They have their own lives now. Romy got out."

"Romy was thrown out." Cissa corrected, "You think she wanted to leave the Black name? She spent her entire life training to take over care of the bloodline. Muggle-born lover or not, she should be the Keeper of the Line and you know it!"

"What the hell do you want from me, Damn it!?"

"I want you to grow the hell up." She snapped angrily.

A silence descended on the room and the two arguers became aware of their audience, who had been standing back and watching the back and forth with avid interest.

"Urmm..." Sirius blinked, throwing a weak smile at the others, "Good afternoon."

Jessica Lavelle Harris raised a single eyebrow, then rolled her eyes, "Welcome to my home. Would you care for any refreshments, perhaps? Or a lozenge to sooth your throats?"

Narcissa had the good grace to blush at that, "My apologies. I'm afraid I let my concerns over family override my good sense and manners."

Jessica inclined her head slightly to the blond, "Accepted. However, let us keep the roar down from this point on. I understand that you have issue of The Line to deal with, and those can be quite emotional, but screaming is more likely to damage your position than help."

Narcissa nodded, conscious of her position in someone elses home. Even if Jessica was a squib, and the house was... disturbingly muggle, it was not her home, nor was it under the flag of Black or Malfoy. So a certain decorum was demanded.

"I'll make some more tea," Jessica said after a moment, "In the meantime, please, make yourselves comfortable."

Narcissa sighed, taking a seat across from her cousin, and spared a brief glare for the shaggy headed man. "Honestly, Sirius, you're The Lord Black now, Exile notwithstanding. You could have purchased more fitting clothes."

"Robes are frowned on for males in muggle society, Cissa." Sirius smirked.

"Do I look like my husband, or one of those ignorant fools he dotes on?" She countered. "I meant that you could have at least fitted yourself out with a dignified suit. Male fashions are quite stable in the Muggle world, Sirius, at least the dignified ones."

"Now that you mention it, you do look a little like Lucius," Sirius smirked, "I think he's a little bit prettier though."

Xander snorted, while Narcissa split a glare between the two of them.

"And you have obviously spent too much time in prison, to say that," She countered calmly.

This time Xander laughed openly, and got a glare from Sirius in response.

Sirius sighed, shaking his head, "Why are you so adamantly hunting me down, Cissa?"

"Because you are the Head of House Black, Sirius. And, my marriage aside, I am a daughter of Black." She answered, "I do not want to see the Line end, Cousin."

"And yet I can't bring myself to care."

She glared at him again, lips thin as she let out a sharp breath. "Damn it, Sirius. There is honor in the family name, you know."

"Precious little."

"Then what of the Line? Do you really intend to let your gift die with you?" She challenged. "The Black Sense exists only in you now. You are the last True Pureblood registered in all of Britain."

Xander blinked, eyes wide. "Uh, excuse me... How's that?"

The two glanced over at him, and Narcissa was the first to answer. "There are degrees of Purebloods, Alexander. The highest level, The True Purebloods, are not based so much on their ancestral line but their Blood. To be a True blood, you must show a bloodline trait that is known to be inherited through the blood. Something you pass to your children, and they to theirs."

"I can't be the last, Cissa." Sirius objected, "The other old lines all hand a few..."

"All dead."

"Simmons?"

"Dead."

"Carmichael?"

"Dead."

Sirius blinked, shaking his head, "Merlin. But what about..."

"They're all dead, Sirius," Narcissa replied sadly. "The remnants of the family lines are ragged bastard children, most of whom don't even know their history, or how to test for it... let alone how to train their blood..."

She took a deep breath, "Cousin... Sirius. I don't want my family line to die. The generations of careful work, centuries of breeding, all gone? It's not right, Sirius. It's not right, and you know it."

Sirius sighed softly, sitting back. "I'm not a Blood Purist, Cissa. I don't care about all that."

"And right now I don't care about it either. I'm not talking about purity. I'm talking about survival." She countered, "You want a muggle born? That's fine. Hell, even a Muggle would be better than nothing. As it stands we have to start all over, I just want to preserve as much as is humanely possible. The wars were not kind to us, Sirius. All across Europe it's the same story, there can't be more than a handful of True Bloods left. Most probably don't even know who, or what, they really are."

She grimaced, "Would I prefer you married a Pureblood? Yes. It would shave several generations of work off the Maintenance of the Line. Do I truly care? No. Either way, I... and you, will be long dead before even a portion of the damage has been repaired."

"I didn't know things were that bad." He sighed.

"That's because you didn't pay attention," Narcissa sighed, "Grindlewald put an end to most of us, whatever else he perpetrated. The Family lines were a ragged mess by the end of the war, why do you think I was married off to Lucius? Bell to Lestrange? For all our power and position, we were broke, Sirius. Your grandfather, paranoid old bastard that he was, spent the fortune on warding and traps. Lucius and Lestrange were low born, pureblood yes but merchants... but they had the Dark Lord's ear, and were rising in both stature and wealth."

Sirius shifted uncomfortably, not really wanting to hear about his cousins' marriages.

"I heard you bought your Godson a new broom, A Firebolt I believe?" Narcissa sneered slightly, "Where do you think that money came from, Sirius? It came from the bribe money Lucius and Rodolphus paid to buy us from the family."

"I... I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't. You were too childish to pay attention to your responsibilities." Narcissa returned sharply. "Hence we come to what I want from you. Grow up, Sirius. You're The Lord Black, now damn it. For once in your life, do your duty."

Xander exchanged a look with Wednesday and cringed a little.

Harsh.

He didn't know the whole story, though, so he tried not to pass judgment on either side. The idea of selling the family's daughters for money was pretty sick, though. It did make something click in his mind, though, explaining some things that hadn't made any sense to him before. He'd often wondered why Lucius Malfoy would support the Dark Lord, since as far as he could tell, Purebloods were on top already. It seemed pretty stupid to revolt against a government you controlled, after all.

But if Malfoy was buying a bride from House Black to boost his status, then he wasn't always in control.

Xander filed the thought away for the moment, but it did answer a lot of questions he'd been formulating.


	67. Chapter 67

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Jessica returned to the room with the tray of tea, noting that the yelling and physical violence had died down. "Have you settled things?"

"Hardly," Narcissa said with a wry smile, "However we've at least made a degree of progress, I believe. My dear cousin here has learned that perhaps his long held opinions aren't as clean and pure as he believed."

Sirius scowled at her as he helped Jessica with the tray, taking it from her and setting it down on the coffee table. "Purity is overrated."

Narcissa shot him a glare at the underhanded shot, but didn't rise to the bait. Instead she accepted another cup of tea and settled back, "So, Cousin, are you going to grow up and take responsibility?"

"There's not a lot I can do, Cissa," Sirius countered, "Or did you miss the 'in Exile' part of my title."

"Then appoint a regent, you simpleton."

"You I suppose?" Sirius growled.

"Do I need to turn the hose on the two of you?" Jessica cut in, glaring at them. "Keep it civil. I've seen what happens when an argument between wizards escalates, and we're hoping to sell this house soon. A gaping hole in the wall will drop the value."

"My Apologies," Narcissa said, sighing.

"Sorry." Sirius mumbled.

"And, for your edification, no. It doesn't have to be me. If you wish me to," Narcissa sighed and ignored the snort from her cousin, "I would be glad to, however you have other options. You could reinstate Andromeda into the family, in fact I would ask that you do that no matter what else."

"If she wants to," Sirius said, "I'll make the arrangements."

Narcissa nodded, "Another possibility is your Godson."

"You mean Harry, right?" Xander spoke up, taking an interest again.

"Indeed. As The Boy Who Lived, young Mr. Potter already has significant political power. That would be useful in the Head of House." Narcissa commented.

"Oh No, I'm not sucking Harry into this mess! He's only... what? Fourteen?" Sirius objected.

"Thirteen, fool." Narcissa rolled her eyes, "He'll be fourteen in July."

"Too young."

"Oh for goodness sakes, Sirius," Narcissa muttered, "Heads of households have often been younger than that. Unless the boy is a perfect imbecile, he'll be able to manage. Especially with good advisors, such as you, myself, and Andromeda."

"Well no one's perfect, but Harry does have his moments," Xander smirked.

The adults scowled at him but he only grinned unrepentantly.

"Seriously, Harry's kinda weird." Xander went on, thoughtfully. "I'm not so sure his home life is all that great. Actually, I'm pretty damned sure it sucks. Just don't know how bad."

"Excuse me?" Narcissa stiffened, looking at him intently.

"Harry doesn't act normal." Xander shrugged, "And a couple times I've seen his Uncle come to pick him up when we get back from school... Fat guy, real ass."

"Xander!"

"Unfortunately, it's an apt description." Sirius sighed.

"You're surely not telling me that the Boy Who Lived is in an abusive household?" Narcissa demanded.

"Don't know if it got that far or not," Sirius admitted, "But Harry was..."

He sighed, grimacing, and decided just to say it, "Almost pathetically happy when I told him he could come live with me. And since he thought I was trying to kill him less than an hour earlier..."

Xander grimaced as well, shaking his head. "Yeah. Harry's weird, like I said. At school he's almost invisible until something bad happens... well, except on the Quidditch Pitch."

Sirius smiled, genuinely happy as he remembered watching his Godson play.

"The Boy Who Lived is almost invisible?" Narcissa was having a hard time imagining it, especially with Draco having told her about how Potter walked around the school like he owned it.

"Yeah, most situations he just kind of curls up on himself and practically hides in a shadow." Xander shrugged.

"That does sound bad," Jessica interjected.

"Indeed." Narcissa scowled. Part of her suggestion that Sirius empower his Godson as Regent was the reports of the boy's 'cockiness' and 'arrogance' from Draco and Severus. A leader of a house had to be able to stand up for the family, and while neither of those two were describing a good leader, she wasn't such a fool as to believe that either was impartial. However, if what Alexander was saying was true, the Potter boy was a far riskier proposition than she'd believed.

"When something goes wrong, though, Harry's the guy you want on your side." Xander spoke up.

"Indeed." Wednesday said, entering the conversation finally.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, in a crisis, he's the guy who's leading the way." Xander shrugged. "It's like he's a different person... It's like he's out on the Pitch. And Harry on the Pitch, you can count on."

Perhaps he wasn't a total loss, then, Narcissa supposed. Still, it made her think twice about that suggestion.

"Would anyone really listen to Harry, though?" Sirius asked, glancing around. "I mean as Head of House."

Narcissa stared at him, stunned for a moment, then remembered that Sirius HAD spent the entirety of Harry's 'fame' life in prison. She took a moment to compose herself, "Yes, Sirius. They would. As the Boy Who Lived, Harry probably wields at least as much influence as any of the other major players in Ministry Politics. Those would be The Minister, Albus, and Lucius in case you were wondering. Arguably he wields more than Lucius, since most of my husbands influence is actually the Minister's."

"Damn." Sirius sat back, thinking. "He'll take over the Potter House when he's sixteen too, won't he?"

"Unless the Potter title is awarded, yes."

"Title?" Xander blinked.

"The Potters hold a Hereditary Knighthood," Sirius said off handedly, "It's conditional, though. The family has been knights and Aurors for so long that King..."

"Edward The Elder," Narcissa provided, noticing him flounder.

"Right, Edward," Sirius nodded, "Awarded them with a Hereditary Knighthood back around 900 AD. It goes into effect when a Potter performs a service to the Realm."

"Like vanquish a Dark Lord, perhaps?" Wednesday put in dryly.

Sirius' eyes widened and he looked over at Narcissa, who shook her head.

"No, I'm afraid that Albus and Lucius quashed that vote less than a month after it happened," She said.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." Sirius muttered.

"How about killing a sixty foot snake that was threatening a school full of kids?" Xander asked.

"That would qualify," Narcissa said, glancing at him. "Are you saying that those outlandish rumors were true?"

"Depends on which one, but Harry did ice that snake with a sword." Xander shrugged. "I was there."

"And I." Wednesday nodded in confirmation. "Ron Weasley as well."

Narcissa looked over at them for a moment, then considered, "There hasn't been a Mage Knight since Potter's grandfather."

Sirius nodded, "James never quite qualified, not clearly anyway. As an Auror he mostly did small jobs until the war got hot, and during it... well, there were a couple times, but by then he was too busy to worry about it. He would have petitioned for it after..."

Sirius smiled sadly, then shook off the feeling as best he could.

"As Sir Potter of Potter, he would have significant weight to his words. He would be a fitting regent, Sirius." Narcissa said calmly.

Sirius wasn't an enamored with the idea of throwing his Godson into the mess that was Ministry and Family politics, however.

"It would also grant him a greater degree of power over his life," Narcissa suggested, "which from the sounds of things, the boy may need."

There was that. Sirius sighed, remembering what he'd seen when he snuck around Privet Drive. The fat muggles there were bad enough just in general, but he'd seen Harry's Uncle lift a hand to Harry. Harry had gotten away, but even that reaction told the tale of someone used to the situation. He LIFTED a HAND to Harry.

Unforgivable.

"Ok, say I consider this..." Sirius frowned, "How do we make it happen?"

"I could approach young Potter at home..."

"Oh hell no." Sirius cut his Cousin off, "No offense, Cissy, but you married Lucius MALFOY. I'm not telling you where Harry lives."

"I'm going over there this summer," Xander raised his hand, shrugging.

"True, I've invited him to the World Cup." Narcissa said calmly, not showing any offense at Sirius' comment.

Sirius grimaced, "And he's a Slytherin, who's going to be staying with the Malfoy's..."

"Ok," Jessica cut in, "First, I'm not happy with the idea of my son getting involved here, and Second... You insult Alexander again and I'll throw you out of this house so hard you bounce. Given that you're a Wizard, I'll bet I could make it happen literally."

Sirius gulped at her sudden intense glare, and nodded. "No insult intended, Ma'am. Just being cautious, there's also the problem of Legilimency, for example..."

"Mind reading?" Xander shrugged, "Working on that."

The adults turned to stare at him.

"You're learning Occlumency?" Narcissa asked, slightly disbelieving.

"Yeah, it's part of my dueling training." Xander admitted, "Been at it since I got home. I can't block anyone, but I can sure as hell tell if someone is taking a walk through my head."

Sirius and Narcissa exchanged glances, both thinking the same thought.

In less than two weeks?

They shook it off.

"Anyway, can't be that hard to get Harry's address anyway," Xander shrugged.

"Ha! Dumbledore must have put him under so many wards you'd never find it if you didn't already know where to look." Sirius chuckled.

Xander stopped and thought for a moment, frowning as he dug through various conversations he'd had with or about Harry. After a moment he nodded and picked up the phone, dialing 411.

"Hello, Information? Could you connect me with information for Surrey, England? Thanks." There was a pause, then Xander asked the person on the other side for the listing of one Vernon Dursley. He hung up the phone, less than five minutes after calling out. "Harry Potter lives at Number..."

"Four, Privet Drive." Narcissa finished calmly.

There was a long pause as Sirius stared, open mouthed at them both.

"How the HELL did you know that!?" He demanded of his cousin first, openly glaring.

She merely rolled her eyes, "Honestly, Sirius. He performed an act of underage magic the summer past. Which meant that an owl was sent out. Given Harry's fame, and the situation with your escape, the Minister was informed... which means..."

"That Lucius Malfoy knows where Harry lives." Sirius groaned. He looked weakly up at Xander, "How did you find him?"

"Telephone directory." Xander shrugged, "Just had to remember that Harry lived in Surrey, and who his uncle was. It's all public information."

"Oh Lord. There had better be some damned impressive defensive wards," Sirius growled.

"There are," Narcissa said, grimacing slightly. "Lucius 'investigated' them shortly after the seal was broke on Potter's file to send him the Owl Warning."

"I'm sure he did." Sirius growled.

"He couldn't even get in to the family," Narcissa shrugged, "Even without Potter there. In fact, when he returned, Lucius had to recheck the address to remember where he'd gone."

Sirius whistled slightly, "Ok. At least Albus isn't a total idiot. There's something powerful at play there."

"Intent wards, perhaps." Wednesday suggested.

"Finicky," Sirius frowned. "But maybe."

As an Auror Curse and Wardbreaker Sirius had seen his share of wards, particularly old family Dark Wards that protected Death Eater homes. Intent wards were among the most difficult to weave, since even a slight mistake could potentially leave large gaping holes in your protection. Properly done, mind, they were among the most potent of wards while remaining remarkably unobtrusive on a family's standard of living.

The heaviest wards were almost as bad as the Fidelius for messing with your lifestyle, Sirius knew. You could put up Muggle Repelling wards, for example, but if you wanted any contact with the Muggle world you couldn't have it from home. There were similar wards that worked against Wizards, but that was akin to cutting yourself off from the magical world.

Unplottable? Good luck inviting someone over. Places like Hogwarts were all but impossible to direct someone to, they had to arrive via prearranged meeting places, or already know exactly where they were going.

That was why Intent based Wards were among the most sought after, and expensive, of warding solutions. You could key them into hostility and they would only snap to affect someone coming to harm you or your family. In theory. In practice they could be so strict as to go off during a heated argument, and throw your best friend out into the snow, or so loose as to permit someone who is 'merely' intent on beating the crap out of you and doesn't actually have homicidal intent.

In fact, several murders that Sirius and James had investigated had turned out to be crimes of passion in which the wards didn't register any intent to harm because the killer had, in all honesty, acted in a fit of spontaneous rage.

Still, if they were well balanced, Intent Based Wards were the best compromise between security and liberty. That said, if the wards at Privet were good enough to turn Malfoy around when Harry wasn't even present, why had Vernon been able to lift a hand to the boy?

Sirius didn't like where his thoughts were leading, not in the slightest.

"Or," Wednesday went on thoughtfully, "There could be Blood Wards."

Sirius stared openly at her, shocked by the suggestion. Blood Wards, on a Muggle Home? He shuddered, "Even Albus wouldn't... Oh hell, he would, wouldn't he?"

"Tied into Lilly?" Narcissa mused thoughtfully, "difficult."

"Not if she did a sacrificial ritual to protect Harry," Sirius pointed out.

Narcissa's eyes widened, "That may well explain a few things."

"I'm missing something here," Xander pointed out, confused.

Sirius shook his head, "We're just guessing, really. But if Lilly sacrificed herself for Harry, using Old Magic, the power released would be..."

"Substantial," Narcissa finished, "And ongoing as long as Lilly's blood remains. It would explain why Albus left him with her family, if they're as nasty as you seem to think."

Sirius nodded reluctantly.

He didn't like to admit it, but properly anchored blood wards were just short of indestructible. It rather depended on a few factors he couldn't check, either, particularly the wording and conditions set by Lilly. While less of a problem than with Intent Wards, Blood Wards also relied heavily on preset conditions. They did tend to adapt better, and react well to situations that would cause all but the best intent wards to collapse into worthlessness.

That said, they exempted 'family' entirely. Which explained a few things to a degree that Sirius found disturbing.

"So we could see Harry then?" Xander asked, still confused. "I mean, if we don't want to hurt him?"

Sirius nodded, distracted. "Yes. Either Intent or Blood Wards will let you in if you don't have any intent to harm."

"Well, like I said then, I'm going over that way this summer." Xander offered.

"That has yet to be decided, Alexander. For the past three years you've been caught in one insane situation after another," Jessica growled, "I won't see my son killed because he was too stupid to stay out of a war that's none of his concern."

"I can assure you of Alexander's safety," Narcissa said softly, "At least from Death Eaters."

Jessica snorted, but Sirius cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"I'd bet she can make that promise, at least in terms of the group. You can't predict how individuals will act, of course." He said dryly. "Her Husband is probably the guy in charge of them, with the Dark Lord gone."

Jessica glanced over at Narcissa, who shrugged and nodded *almost* imperceptibly. It could be taken as an admission of guilt, she supposed, but even under Veritaserum Jessica knew she'd have a hard time testifying that Narcissa had made any such admission.

She sighed, looking at Alex. "I suppose you want to do this, don't you?"

"Sounds cool." Xander grinned, earning himself a dark scowl. He rolled his eyes, "Come on, Mom. It's not like I'm planning on joining Harry on any crazy stuff. Just deliver some messages, and watch a sports match."

She sighed, "I'll speak with your father. If nothing else, it'll make the Families happy I suppose."

Xander nodded, "Cool. So, I can talk to Harry if you guys want."

Sirius shook his head, "Why not? Not like everyone who wants to kill Harry don't already know where he lives, right?"

"Probably not all," Xander smirked, "Harry seems to piss some folk off..."

Narcissa snorted.

Sirius sighed, rolling his eyes, "Whatever. I still don't know about pulling Harry into this mess, however."

"Don't." Xander said, "You pull him in, and you'll piss him off. Ask him. Lay it out, give him the choice."

"Indeed. Harry Potter has not reacted well to people pushing him where they want in the past," Wednesday said. "Do not make that mistake if you wish to work with him."

Sirius nodded slowly, then sighed, "Alright. Alright. You win, Cissa."

"I would hope, Cousin, that the Family Black has won." Narcissa said with calm contentment. She had accomplished the first phase of what needed to be done. Certainly it was almost a minor issue compared to getting her Cousin to find a wife and produce an heir, but it would do for now.

"If the deep, dark political conspiracy talk is over," Jessica spoke up dryly, "Would you two like to stay for supper?"

Narcissa and Sirius glanced at each other, and flushed slightly at the biting tone, but nodded together.

"Wednesday?"

"I'll be flooing home."

Jessica nodded, unsurprised. "I'll set the extra places."

* * *

Sirius found a moment before supper to pull Xander aside, surprising the teen.

"I didn't want to bring it up in front of everyone," Sirius said, a bit of a smirk on his face, "But I was watching you and your friends earlier."

"Gee, why wouldn't you bring that in front of my mom?" Xander replied dryly.

"Hey, not like that." Sirius winced, "I mean at the Junkyard."

"That was you?"

"You saw me?" Sirius was surprised.

Xander glared slightly, "You know, following me around? Not a great way to earn my trust, dude."

"Sorry. I wanted to ask about the wand, though."

Xander shrugged, "Not a lot to say about it yet. It's a work in progress."

"That last blast was at Auror level strength, at least."

"Yeah?" Xander smiled a bit, "Cool."

He frowned a little after, "Still, it's still just a work in progress like I said. It's not real good for charms, and transfiguration is only average. It's an improvement over our other attempts, but nothing great... yet anyway."

"You've made more?" Sirius asked, impressed.

Xander nodded, "Yeah. My uncle helped get me a time to write the wand crafter's exam this summer. Hope to get some more progress made before I head back over to England."

"You make it much better and you'll be giving Ollivander a run for his money." Sirius grinned.

"Yeah well... we'll see I guess," Xander said, embarrassed a bit.

"Look, if Harry accepts the Regency, I want you to tell him to get something out my vault at Gringotts." Sirius said, changing the subject.

"K." Xander nodded, "What?"

"A pair of mirrors," Sirius answered, "They're for talking over distance. He can owl one to me and..."

"Why don't I just make you a Spell Phone?" Xander smirked.

"A what?"

"Come on, I'll show you." Xander nodded to the basement door.

Sirius blinked, but followed him down, and was impressed by the array of magical equipment lying around the tables. When Xander showed him the phone he recognized the work pretty quick. "You did this?"

"Yeah, ruined a bunch of home runes. That spell is such a pain."

"It's NEWT level," Sirius muttered, looking over the devices. "You know, the mirrors are easier to use, right? Just say the word it's charmed to answer to, and it connects you."

"Yeah, I read about those. These work a little different, though," Xander admitted, "Don't need to charm these every time you add a new phone. Just make sure that the new phone uses a different rune address and it'll link automatically when you match them. I'm giving one to my friend Wills, Hermione, Harry... need two for myself. One for you, if you want. They'll all be able to contact each other, and any others we add later. See?"

Sirius did, and he was a little shocked. "You don't have to recharm them to add people in?"

Xander shook his head, "Nope. It's all in the protean, man."

Sirius Black eyed the young man for a long moment, then shook his head. "Kid. You're scaring me."


	68. Chapter 68

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The dinner was a tense affair, once Tony got home, but they got through it without incident and Narcissa took her leave shortly after. Sirius informed them that he'd be hanging around the town a bit for a while and offered to help Xander with some of his work.

Xander could tell that Tony wasn't particularly impressed with the offer and didn't much like the idea of the British Wizard hanging around, but Xander accepted the offer anyway. He needed a hand with the protean, otherwise he knew that he'd ruin dozens of runes simply to make the few spell phones he needed.

Besides, he wanted to get some more information on the Black's and Potters, as well as a few other families.

It would have to wait, however, since he had the next couple days scheduled for more torture sessions with Chayton.

* * *

"Don't stop moving." Chayton ordered, sending stinging hexes wordlessly at Xander as he forced the boy onward.

Xander was puffing, unable to cast a spell now for lack of air and ability to speak.

"You'll never be able to hold up your end of a fight like that, kid!" Chayton called, nailing Xander in the side with a pair of hard stingers. "Can't breathe, can't speak, can't cast wordlessly. What can you do!?"

Xander hit the ground hard, sliding to a stop and started coughing as he panted. Chayton walked over and crouched by a boulder over him, shaking his head.

"Not good enough, Alex." The former Pride member said. "You've got to be able to cast at all times, so either you learn some wordless spells, or you get your ass in shape."

The former Auror smirked, "You know what? Let's do both, k?"

Xander moaned on the ground, curling up into a ball and wishing he'd stayed in bed.

* * *

Occlumency training, however, was moving ahead of Chayton's plans and that was confusing him. In every other way the Harris boy was about where he should be in terms of magic and skill, this is he was pitiful. Average power for his age, at least for those who received an invitation to one of the top schools. Knowledge and skills were spotty, he knew some advanced spells beyond his year, but was missing out on some of the basics.

In short, with dedication, Chayton figured that the boy could probably apply for, and have a shot at, a spot on the Pride... in ten to fifteen years.

His Occlumency, however, was well in advance of where it should be.

He certainly couldn't hold out even a marginally competent Legilimens yet, but that day was coming quickly. Far more quickly than it should, and neither he nor Robert could explain why.

* * *

During a rare break from training, Xander caught up with Sam while the former Seal was visiting Robert.

"Hey Sam, I need to talk with you."

"What's up kid?"

"You know my parents are planning on moving, right?" Xander asked.

Sam nodded, "Sure. Tony mentioned it. About time, really."

"Well, I've been thinking. With my magic projects and stuff, I need a place to work that's away from people and all. You hear that the junkyard outside of town is for sale?" Xander asked.

Sam nodded, grimacing. "Owner and his family were killed a few weeks ago, yeah."

Xander grimaced, "Damn, I didn't know. You were friends, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry."

"Nothing you could do, kid. So, what? You want to run a junkyard now?" Sam asked, half joking.

"Not really," Xander admitted, "But can you think of a better place to maybe blow up an experiment?"

"Really far out in the desert comes to mind," The Seal replied dryly. "But it's not a bad second choice. It's going to be expensive to buy and then just leave sitting around."

Xander thought about it, then shrugged, "Well... know any squibs who need jobs then? I mean, I can buy it as an investment, right?"

Sam thought about it for a moment, thinking about the site. The Junkyard had a full garage, with a hydraulic lift. It was where he had rebuilt his old Chevy, actually. Other than a single old computer used for book work the place was all old school in terms of tech, so magic wouldn't bring it crashing to the ground.

"Maybe. Let's talk to Robert about it, he knows more folk than I do."

Xander nodded and the two headed in to talk to the old man.

Robert, as it turned out, knew more than a couple people who might fit the bill and was more than willing to give their names to Xander. Unsurprisingly they were former military, a couple guys from front line outfits and a couple who'd done work in the motor pool. Less of the good was the fact that they all had criminal records, but Robert assured Xander and Sam that they knew their business, were aware of magic, and picked up their records mostly from bar brawls and the like.

Not good for getting a job in the real world, but in Sunnydale that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Armed with that information, Xander took Sam home that night and started the task of selling the idea to his dad.

* * *

"I don't know, Alex," Tony hesitated. "It's a lot of money, and you're still only fourteen."

"Let Jess run the business, Tony," Sam suggested, "You know she has the education for it, whether it's on the books or not."

Tony grimaced, but conceded the point. Sam had intentionally jabbed a sore spot with that one, since like many Squibs Jessica had been educated by the family, but not provided with much in the way of paperwork to back it up in the non-magical world. He'd been the same, and had to take a menial job and work his way up to where he was.

Which wasn't very much higher than he started, to be honest. To be even more honest, Tony knew that he would be higher if he hadn't started the habit of drinking as much as he did. Jessica's education with the families was a lot better than his, the Lavelle's tended to provide more than the Harris' did in that respect, and Jess had been a smart cookie from day one. She could run a business, or learn how in a hurry.

"It would keep you from blowing out the neighbors windows," Tony grunted, smirking at Xander.

"That was only the one time!"

Sam mumbled something about once being enough, but didn't say more when Xander scowled at him.

"Alright, talk to your mother." Tony said, "She'll help you setup a plan. You are NOT going to do this like some little idiot. You want to run it as an investment, get your mother to show you how."

Xander grimaced, "I just got myself even more work, didn't I?"

Sam laughed loudly.

"Oh shut up, Sam," Tony grinned, "And yes, you did. But not much, since you're not going to be here much."

Xander just groaned.

* * *

He had indeed loaded himself down with more work, Xander found out quickly. Between training with Chayton and learning now with his mother, Xander's own projects had to be set aside. He was lucky to get an hour or two in the evenings to spend with Willow or Jessie, and just wanted to spend most of it lazing around and maybe watching TV or a movie.

Luckily, with Sirius offering to help, Willow could follow his notes on building Spell Phones. The wand work was mostly easy stuff now, just requiring meticulous notes more than anything else, Something Willow was a lot better at than he.

All of which, to Xander, meant that he wasn't getting to do any of the fun stuff anymore. Oh, training had its moments, but as the days went by it was more and more drudgery and less of the brilliant fun it began as.

Ok, brilliant fun was pushing it, especially when applied to Occlumency.

That had started as a monumental pain, literally, and was the one thing that had gotten easier over the past couple weeks. Of course easier didn't mean it was any more enjoyable. Occlumency was like every night of homework he'd ever had to do in normal school, compounded and compressed into a single session of boredom.

The headaches had passed, though, so it wasn't killing him anymore.

* * *

"He's advancing in Occlumency too quickly." Chayton told Robert a month into the training.

"So?" The old man shrugged, "That's a good thing, is it not?"

"No. It's not." Thomas muttered, "The boy's mind is opening faster than his defenses are mounting. He's going to be wide open to damn near anything that wants in at this rate."

Robert frowned, thinking on that. "What causes this?"

"Nothing I'm aware of. I've never seen it before." Chayton replied. "Untrained, the boy would be a walking bullseye for all sorts of mental manipulation. Partially trained, he's even more open."

"And fully trained?"

Chayton shook his head, "I don't know. We could be doing more harm than good now. I just don't see any other direction than forward, though."

Robert nodded slowly, "So... if we're hurting the boy, what can we do?"

"Find out why." Chayton said earnestly. "Something's wrong here."

"I'll contact the families. They may know something." Robert sighed, disliking the necessity of being forced to deal with the Heads of Families, but accepting it.

Chayton nodded, "Alright."

Robert nodded as Chayton left and ruminated on the situation. He really didn't like dealing with the families, especially the Harris Head. However, he'd put the boy in the middle of this, so it was time to see what he'd done and how to fix it.

He got up, old bones creaking, and walked over to the fire.

"Salem Sally's!" He called, tossing Floo powder into the blaze.

The green flames erupted out, swallowing him whole, and in a moment the room was empty save for the warm glow of the flickering fire.

* * *

Salem Sally's was an old favorite for the upper crust of American Pureblood society. Of course the Sally's wasn't the actual name. The real name changed every few decades or so, but to people like Robert it was now, and always would be, Salem Sally's.

"Robert."

"Hello Sarah." Robert smiled as he leaned on his cane.

"What can we do for you today?"

"I need a room."

"And a girl?"

"No, but I do need a runner."

"For you, Robert." The woman said, smiling softly before she turned away. "Please wait here."

Robert just nodded and took a seat. Sally's was, in Robert's terms, an old fashioned comfort house. The sort of place that married men of high standing could find a few hours of time away from whatever problems they've managed to accumulate in their oh so important lives.

Sally's was known for having the most beautiful hostesses and, if you leaned that way, the best looking hosts. Sally's was comfortable, lavishly appointed, and very, VERY discrete.

Sally's was also entirely run and staffed by squibs. Invisible people, people of no value to men and women the likes of who Robert was here to meet.

Robert's people.

* * *

Matriarch Lavelle sniffed in irritation as she crossed over the threshold of the brothel. Setting foot in such a place wasn't an embarrassment or anything of that nature, but it still insulted her sensibilities to a degree.

"Madam." The man who met her was young, perhaps twenty. Handsome, of course, not that it meant much in a world of Polyjuice and plastic surgery. She ignored him and looked past him to the stairs.

"Show me my room."

"Of course, Madam. This way."

She was led up to a lavish sitting room, part of a suite she presumed, and paused to glare mildly at the man waiting for her.

"This is not the sort of place I prefer to meet people, Robert."

"Funny, it's exactly the sort of place I like to meet people."

"What is this about?"

"The Kid, Jessica's son."

"Alexander, yes. What of him?"

"I called in a favor, got him some training." Robert said.

"I fail to see how this is worth my coming here."

"In Occlumency."

Robert was watching close and he almost missed the subtle tension that appeared in the woman, she was good at covering up her emotions. Unsurprising, he supposed. "You know something."

"Why are you coming to me?"

Robert sighed, "Damn it, Old Woman, you know damn well. I can see it in your eyes."

The Lavelle Matriarch stiffened slightly, but otherwise ignored the old woman crack. She sighed slowly, then settled a little. "You began training the boy in Occlumency... several years earlier than is normal, I might add."

"The 'boy' has been getting into trouble," Robert said, "You know, in that place you and Marcus keep pushing him to go back to?"

"Yes, I'm aware of young Alexander's adventures." Lady Lavelle replied. "Giving him aptitude with the mental arts isn't the sort of solution I would have expected from you."

"Yeah well, I'm full of surprises."

"Let me guess," She said icily. "He's progressing quickly, after a month he's already able to sense intrusions and his mind is opening faster than his defenses are building. Am I close?"

"You're slow off the mark. He hit that point two weeks ago."

"What!?" She snapped sharply, her gaze spearing him with its intensity. "You should have come to me sooner."

"What the hell is going on?"

"This is a family matter, Robert."

"Alex is my family, remember?"

"It is an issue of the Line, Robert." Lady Lavelle rose to her feet. "It will be handled."

"Like hell!" Robert got up, "What's going on!?"

Robert could only seethe as the Lady Lavelle ignored him and left the room. He looked around for a moment, trying to determine his options, but came up dry. Chasing after her would net him nothing at best, possibly less than that if she took offense. He hadn't seen them, but the Matriarch of the Lavelle line wouldn't have come without her bodyguards.

He sat back down and considered for a moment.

Hopefully she would keep her word and handle the situation, as her words were his only clue.

It was an issue of the Line.

That was a buzzword phrase if ever he'd heard one. To a pureblood, one of the ones who were serious about their traditions, it was like raising the colors for a military man. He wasn't getting anything more out of her on the subject, of that Robert was unfortunately certain.

The door cracked open and a young woman peered in.

"Mr. Lee, will you be staying the night?"

Robert glanced up at the ceiling and smiled slightly, "Yes, thank you Michelle."

"I'll have your regular room prepared."

* * *

"Better." Chayton allowed as Xander collapsed to the ground in a quivering pile. "Soon you should be able to hold your own against a girl scout troop."

Xander shot him a dark look, which only cause the big Native American to smile.

"I wouldn't worry, if you reach the point where you can take an American girl scout troop, those amateur terrorists in England will be a piece of cake."

Xander snorted through the pain and wheezing, shaking his head. "What do you know about them, seriously?"

"The Death Eaters?" Chayton shrugged, "They're terrorists. All accounts agree on that. That tells me almost everything I need to know right there."

"I don't get it." Xander looked up, confused.

"Terrorists choose their path to fight for only a few reasons, and they all boil down to one common one. They can't win in a straight up confrontation." Chayton said, taking a seat on a nearby boulder. "So to figure out how dangerous they really are, you look to the people they can't beat in a real fight. In this case, English Aurors."

Xander couldn't help it, he snorted again. "I don't know how they were twenty years ago, but the ones I've seen aren't all that great."

"Mostly they weren't then either," Chayton chuckled. "You have to understand, peace keepers aren't warriors. Warriors make BAD peace keepers, and vice versa. Most folk think that if you're trained to fire a curse you're automatically a cop, a soldier, a hit wizard... all of the above wrapped into one. That's not how it works. Cops are trained to calm the situation down, get people talking, end things peacefully. Soldiers, they're trained to kill people and break things."

"What about The Pride?"

Chayton looked over, serious for a moment, then shrugged. "We're a bit of a mix. We hunt down criminals that aren't going easy, we get called in when the locals can't handle a situation. Do we try to keep things civil? Yeah. But that's not how most of our cases work out."

Xander nodded, taking deep and even breaths as his heart slowly began to stop pounding in his ear.

"So, back to the original question, if the group in question can't take a bunch of flat foot cops in a straight up fight, then they're pretty piss poor on the warrior scale." Chayton said with a shrug, "Especially when you consider that the cops they were originally fighting were among the lowest paid and most understaffed in Europe. To not be able to take them in straight up fights, when you're using unforgivables and they're not allowed to... you have to be pretty weak."

"What about Chief Mold in his Shorts, the Dark Lord?"

"That's another matter." Chayton sighed, "and something to remember when dealing with irregular groups like that. They may be weak in general, but that doesn't mean they're ALL that way. We call them irregulars for a reason."

"Yeah. You know, the more I look at the wizarding world the more some things confuse me," Xander admitted. "How does someone like Moldy over there get away with it?"

"Power." Chayton answered without hesitation.

"Can't be all, I mean... can it?"

"What can I say, sometimes that's all it takes." Chayton shrugged.

"Come on," Xander complained, "There's no way one guy can just stand up like that and take on the whole world, is there?"

"No way a non-magical can," Chayton shrugged, "but Magic is a strange and terrible thing."

"Man, that's just messed up." Xander said, sighing.

"Sam Colt wasn't a Wizard." Chayton chuckled.

"What?"

"Something Robert used to tell me, said it made sense, but I figure it must be a non-magical thing." Chayton replied, "He said that there was an old expression. God created man..."

"But Sam Colt made them equal." Xander finished, nodding.

"You know it then?"

"I think most Americans know it," Xander chuckled, then frowned seriously. "Sam Colt wasn't a wizard."

"Mean more to you than it does to me?"

"Maybe." Xander said thoughtfully. "I never thought about it that way. We're not equal, are we?"

"By what definition of the term?" Chayton shrugged.

"Huh?"

"Non magicals use equal as a term to define their moral right to life. In that sense I like to think that we all, magical and non-magical, human and non-human, are equal. But realistically?" The big American Indian shrugged. "You were born white, into two important family lines here in the Americans. I was born to the Tribes. You have some advantages, I have others. Equal there we are not. Both of us were born well into the top twenty percent of all Wizards in the Americas for magical power. We're demonstrably superior to eighty percent of our Wizard brethren. There's no equality there, and that's not even counting low magic folk and non magicals."

Xander nodded soberly.

"People want there to be some 'magical' world," Chayton smiled ironically, "where everything is perfect and everyone gets what they deserve. In pursuit of that fantasy, they cheat, they steal, and they kill. And those are the good folk. The bad ones do all that just cause they want to."

The former law enforcement wizard sighed, shrugging helplessly.

"But the world ain't built that way, and it's not possible to ever reach it. We live in a world where a saint can be killed by a bolt of lightning, and a sinner saved by a breath of wind. It's not about equality, it's about living the best we can, each of us as individuals."

Xander nodded, wondering if the big guy was right.

It was kind of depressing, really, in some ways. Was the world really that screwed up?

"Come on, back to work kid. We've got another two hours to go."

Xander moaned and pushed himself back up.


	69. Chapter 69

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Jessica Harris brooded quietly as she took a seat in the darkened living room of her home of thirty years. She'd received a Floo call from the Lady Lavelle just a couple hours earlier, telling her to expect someone from the family with regards to her son's training.

Like many low magicals born into the families, Jessica hadn't grown up knowing she couldn't cast. In fact, late development was a common occurrence and many families merely assumed that their children would develop, if not into Salem candidates, then at least into fully empowered members of the Magical World.

For her it had all fallen apart when she was twelve, the final magical tests had shown that her core was at its mature peak and was no longer growing in strength. There had, of course, been indicators before that, there always were, but her parents had kept them from her so as not to 'worry her'.

It was a mixed blessing, she supposed. Her heart and soul had been all but destroyed when it all finally came down, but she had been well educated prior to that point in the family ways. She knew things that many pure bloods were never taught about the Lines, and could manage a household or a business with the competence expected of a Lavelle.

It also meant she had some idea of what the coming meeting was about, and she was worried. She'd never expected that Alex might develop an instance of the family magic, it was so rare. For it to be strong enough to require intervention, that was even worse. She and Anthony must have been far more compatible than she had believed possible, and that in itself boded for a mixed future.

The Floo flared to life on schedule, the green flames washing out as a robed figure stepped out and into the room.

"Jessica Lavelle." The pale man said, nodding politely.

"Signor Davis." She replied in kind, gesturing to a chair.

"I will stand." He said, "You understand why I'm here?"

"To a degree. I wasn't informed on the seriousness of the situation."

"Mostly because we are not certain of it ourselves, Jessica." Davis told her, "This is the first chance we've had to check it personally."

Jessica nodded, "Yet they send you."

"Yes. They send me." Davis said softly.

"My son is in his room, he came back from training and took a nap. He's been pushing himself too hard lately." Jessica said, "He has too many things on his plate for a fourteen year old boy."

"That's as it may be, but this will have to take precedence."

"Yes, I know." She said, "I'll wake him."

Davis nodded. "I'll wait and come up in five minutes. Precisely."

* * *

Xander shifted when the knock came on his door, "I'm up. I'm up."

"Not yet, but hurry please. There's someone here to see you."

"Mom?" He blinked, rolling over. "K. Who? Willow?"

"No. Someone from the Family."

Xander blinked awake, pushing himself up in bed as he automatically reached for his wand. Since he first learned about magic he'd slowly begun to fall in line with certain common attributes of wizards. One of those was, you never met another wizard or witch without your wand. It just wasn't done.

He scourgified himself, shivering with the feeling, then yanked on a pair of jeans and jammed his Ollivander wand into the belt as he threw on an old Hawaiian shirt.

Granted, it was also wizarding custom to meet in appropriate wizarding attire, but Xander figured that this was his home, not theirs.

He nodded to his Mom, "I'll be right down."

"That won't be necessary."

The new voice caused Xander to twist, hand dropping to his belt as he spotted the pale figure appear behind his Mom. He'd barely cleared leather when a preemptive spell slid under his mom's arm and struck him in the chest.

Jessica Lavelle twisted, face red, "What the hell do you think you're doing!? You said five minutes!"

"The boy must be tested off his guard." Davis said, calmly shunting her to one side as he approached the paralyzed boy. He idly noted the wand, half pointed in his general direction, "Not bad, child. But you would never have got me with that, not unless you were willing to shoot through your mother."

Xander's eyes were the only thing that could move as he stood there, glaring openly at the stranger.

Davis carefully avoided the boys' eyes as he set his small bag down on the night table by the bed. "Now, I'm sure you have many questions, and they will be answered soon enough. For the moment, just know that I am Davis. I was sent here by the Lady Lavelle. You and your family are in no immediate danger, so please stop trying to overcome my Petrificus, you'll only wear yourself out."

Xander could only roll his eyes and watch as the man laid out a couple vials on the stand, then turned back to him with wand drawn.

"And now... let us begin." Davis said, snapping his wand out at Xander. "Legilimens!"

* * *

Sirius Orion Black sat outside on the roof of the cheap motel he was renting a room in, eyeing the sun as it began it's descent into the ocean. It was a different world from home, he thought. He'd grown up in London, never venturing outside Grimmauld Place for fear of the 'muggles'. Until he went to Hogwarts his experience with other people was almost entirely limited to family, and as he'd loudly and publically noted since then his family was nuts.

His mother had been losing what remained of her marbles for as long as he could remember, his dad while not as bad, was just as eccentric as Wizards were expected to be. His entire world had been the four walls of Grimmauld until the day he made his way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, and met James Potter.

From that day to the night he was thrown in Azkaban, he'd lived every day like he was making up for his first eleven years. He'd seen Paris and Madrid, Rome and Jakarta, even kidnapped his best friend once, with a little help from Remus and Peter, and shanghaied the soon to be groom on a seven day world tour that began in Monaco and ended in Vegas.

Sirius smiled slightly.

Lilly had NOT been pleased.

James hadn't been too happy either, at least not when the photos of the event turned up in their honeymoon suite.

Lord had James made them pay for THAT.

All those times, and where was he now? Exiled from home, unable to look after Harry the way he'd sworn he would. Life and fate were fickle things, sometimes.

"M... Mr. Black..."

Sirius looked down, barely hearing the soft voice, and was surprised to see the young redheaded girl Xander had introduced him to standing on the ground below him. "Yes, Willow?"

He hadn't had much contact with her, but knew that the girl had a brilliant mind. She was, in fact, very much like Lilly when they first saw her. Nervous, scared out of her mind, completely out of her depth... yet totally unwilling to admit any of it. Alright, this girl was almost fourteen, by then Lilly was nothing like any of that, but Sirius could still see her and reminisce.

"What can I do for you?" Sirius asked when she didn't respond on her own.

"W... well, I was just thinking, I mean h-hoping," The girl said, blushing as she spoke.

' Lord I hope she isn't about to confess a crush on old Padfoot here, ' Sirius thought, secretly a little pleased that he still had it.

"Yes?" He prodded.

"Could you... could you show me how you cast the Protean so easily?" She got out in a rush.

Sirius felt his little bit of guilty pride pop like a balloon and grinned self-consciously, "I think we can arrange something. Do you have any more of those spell phones ready?"

She nodded.

"Alright," Sirius hopped off the roof, eliciting a shriek from her before he cast a light Leviosa on himself to soften the landing. "Let's go."

* * *

The intrusion into his mind was like a sword slashing where Chayton's had been like a needle piercing. Xander threw up everything he had at it, but it all was cut down in an instant. He felt the other mind against his, his entire being thrown into holding it back, all to no avail. Time had no meaning, the white hot pain searing across his mind.

He clenched his teeth, his jaw cracking and exploding with even more pain, but there was nothing he could do to hold the mind back.

Not a thing in the universe.

Xander finally lost it and screamed.

That was the last thing he remembered until more pain lanced through his skull, this time from the light hitting his eyes as he woke up. He looked around slowly, realizing he was no longer petrified and was, in fact, laying back on his bed while the pale man stood over him and flashed a light in his eyes.

"He's fine, Jessica." The man, Davis, said. "Pupil response is as expected. He did indeed inherit a full measure of the Lavelle Line. I expect you'll be contacted by the Lady Lavelle again soon."

Xander heard his mother murmur something in the background, but couldn't make it out.

"He's awake, still confused. It's understandable." The pale man said, turning back to Xander. "I know you can hear me, boy. Don't try to move too much now, you won't like what it'll do to your head. I've left potions to help with the pain and the confusion. Your mother will explain it all when you're ready to understand complex concepts once more, it should be a few minutes."

Xander stared at him, blinked, then crossed his eyes, and stared some more.

"I understand that you have a busy schedule. It's about to get busier." Davis said simply. "I will be taking over your Occlumency lessons from the Auror. We have much to do, and very little time to do it in if you are to make your scheduled meetings with the Malfoy family."

With those words the man stood up and turned away from Xander, walking out of the room. He paused only by Xander's mother to say a few short words that Xander couldn't catch, then was gone.

Jessica came in and sat on the side of the bed, "I'm sorry. I didn't know he was going to do that, I've never seen a line test before. I just knew a little about them."

"Don... understan..." Xander mumbled.

Jessica nodded, uncorking a vial, "Here... drink this."

Xander did as he was told, gulping the foul tasting concoction down without really tasting it. The pain in his head dulled almost instantly, and he sighed and sank back in a more relaxed state.

"Davis is a family retainer, you might say." Jessica said. "He administers Line Tests for Lavelle's who are believed to have shown evidence of the blood."

Xander frowned, "What blood?"

"The mind arts, Alex. The Lavelle's have long been masters of the mind arts." She said, "Occlumency and Legilimency were developed by a Lavelle, centuries ago. Along with others, some known... some... not. You've developed a Mind Talent early, most don't until their twenties when they're fully grown in body, mind, and magic."

She smiled softly, "I'm afraid it's going to mean more work."

Xander groaned, rolling over, and pulled his pillow over his head.

* * *

Jessica Harris answered the door and was only a little surprised to see Willow there, along with Sirius Black. "Hello Willow."

"Is Xander around?" The redhead asked, "I asked Sirius if he could teach me the spell for the phones, and I was hoping we could..."

"Come in," Jessica smiled, cutting off the babble before it got started.

She stepped aside, letting the two into the house, and considered the young redhead girl for a moment as she walked past. Jessica had always liked Willow, of course. Few parents of budding ADHD poster children wouldn't. Willow had a calming effect on her son, and a lifting one on her son's grades. Well, up until Xander had gotten his invitation to Salem, of course.

Even with the separation, Jessica still gave Willow some of the credit for Alex's improved grades. While his interest in the material was likely the primary reason, she suspected that without the study habits Willow had burned into him from almost the first grade he would be struggling just that much harder.

Right now, she also knew that Xander was not in the best of moods. He'd just been attacked in his own home, and even if he did believe her when she said she knew nothing about it, she had still invited the attacker into the house. No matter what rationale, he had to be feeling just a little betrayed.

Maybe he could use someone to talk to that wasn't her, right now.

"Xander's up in his room," Jessica said finally, nodding to the stairs. "I'm sure Mr. Black can get things ready downstairs while you visit for a few minutes."

Willow glanced at Sirius, who just shrugged and nodded.

"Thank you, Mrs. Harris!" Willow said, bolting for the stairs.

Sirius hesitated a moment, until the girl was gone. "What happened?"

"Family business, Mr. Black." Jessica said softly. "Don't worry about it."

Sirius paused, then nodded again, "Well I'll go get things ready for Willow's lesson on the protean then."

Jessica nodded and let him go, turning away to see to the dishes in the kitchen.

* * *

Xander had pulled his old guitar out of the closet, not really thinking anything as he did so, just looking for something to keep his mind occupied.

He'd been attacked in his own bedroom.

His fingers tightened the keys, tuning it by ear the way he'd been taught when he was eight. It wouldn't be in 'tune' with anything but itself that way, but it would do. When he finished Xander settled back on the bed, sitting against the headboard, and just started to pluck out a beat.

The guy may have been working for family, but what if he hadn't been?

He was still there, still plucking the same beat when Willow knocked.

"Xander? You decent?"

Normally that would have brought a smile to his face, and a joke to his lips, but Xander didn't even look up from the guitar. "In here, Wills."

Willow slowly poked her head in, then blinked when she saw what he was doing and let herself in the rest of the way. "I remember that. You haven't played that since you were..."

"Nine." Xander said, fingers still hesitantly plucking at the strings. "Yeah, I know."

Willow had been about to say that he hadn't played the guitar since he'd tried in that school talent show and been heckled mercilessly for it by Cordelia and her group of friends, but his answer was better. She sat down on the side of the bed for a moment, just listening, but couldn't place the tune.

"What are you playing?"

"You can't recognize it?" He asked, a hint of a smile on his face.

Willow shook her head.

"I'm disappointed in you, Wills."

Willow flushed a little, "Maybe it's not my ears, but your playing..."

Her hand clapped over her mouth, though a little too late to stop that from coming out. "Oh, Xan... I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"It's ok..." He said, still smiling softly at her. "It's not a song, Wills. Just listen."

She did for another little while, the beat speeding up as his fingers began to remember their way around the strings. Finally she shook her head in frustration, "I don't get it."

"Think Arithmancy, Wills." Xander said, closing his eyes.

Willow blinked, mind shifting tracks. What did Arithmancy have to do with music? She listened more intently, now knowing that it had something to do with magic, a subject that Willow had to admit (with a certain reluctance and chagrin) that Xander knew better than her.

The beat was hypnotic, even mostly except for little hits in the general sound. Little highs and lows that seemed out of place, but felt right all the same. Now that he had connected it to magic for her, it did feel familiar, something she had studied. As she listened, Willow's mind slowly seemed to connect with the sound and suddenly her eyes snapped open.

"It's the Protean!"

"Bravo, five points to the house of genius redheads," Xander said with soft smirk, then frowned a little puzzled. "Now would that Gryffinclaw or Ravendor?"

"Huh?" Willow screwed up her face in confusion. Those weren't houses from his school, she'd read about it after all. He just mashed two names together for no reason.

"You had to be there, Wills. You had to be there."

Willow shook her head, "Why are you playing the protean on your guitar? Can you cast it that way?"

"I don't know." He told her, hand coming down on the strings to still the sound. "I just needed something to clear my mind, that's all."

"Is everything alright?" She asked, concerned now.

"Yeah," He said after a moment, "I just found out some family stuff that I'm having a hard time with."

"Bad stuff?" Willow cringed.

"No. Just bad delivery." He shrugged, then sighed, "I also picked up more work this summer."

"More!?" Willow stopped just short of wailing or whining, in her opinion, but her thoughts on the matter were clear. She didn't want to lose what little time she had with her best friend entirely.

"Yeah. More."

"Xander, you can't keep doing this. You have to have some fun too..."

He grinned at her, "My Word, is that Willow I hear? Telling me not to study?"

"That's not what I said!" She glared at him as he chuckled at her.

"This is important stuff, Wills. I can't skip it." He said, turning serious for a moment.

"Oh, Xander. We never see each other anymore."

"It'll get better." He said.

She looked up at him, "You promise?"

"Yeah, I promise." He put the guitar aside and leaned over, giving her a hug.

* * *

"So?"

"The boy is a full adept." Davis reported, face a mask that showed nothing of what he was thinking.

"You're joking." Lady Lavelle hissed in shock.

"No joke, my Lady." He shook his head, "I don't believe the Line has seen his type in two centuries."

"Franklin." She whispered, "And his entire youth wasted."

Davis shrugged, "There was no way to predict that an adept would be born to two low magicals, ma'am."

"That hardly helps. Very well, training?"

"I'll focus on getting his shields up to where they should be for a normal magical child of his age. I can't do more than that if you want to keep the open line with the Malfoy family."

"I understand. Do what you can." She said, waving him away.

After Davis left, Lady Lavelle's mind whirled in shock. A full adept of the mind arts was not something that came around every day, however he was already fourteen. For an adept to reach their full potential, they had to be trained early. It was almost never done because, even in the Lavelle line, adepts were sparse to the point of nonexistence, and early training in Occlumency was pointless for most, at its worst even harmful.

She walked over to the ancient tapestry of the Lavelle line and traced the names down to where Jessica's mother ended with no names following it. She considered it for a long moment before drawing her wand and adding the name Jessica Lavelle back to the tapestry, married to Anthony Harris.

One child.

Alexander Lavelle.

This bode thinking on.

* * *

Xander sighed as he settled back into his room. He'd spent some time in the basement with Willow and Sirius, getting some pointers on the Protean alongside her best friend, but his heart and mind just weren't into it at the moment.

His guitar was sitting on a chair across from his bed, but he left it be for the moment.

He didn't know what to do from this point, and that was bugging him. It wasn't like he always had a plan or anything, but he did usually have some sort of idea. Whether it was making wands, enchanting phones, or just goofing off with his friends he had an idea.

Now the only thing he could see in his immediate future was following orders.

Come here. Do this. Learn that.

Magic wasn't so much fun anymore.

He threw himself back, bouncing a little on the bed as he did, and groaned. How had he gotten himself into this?

All he wanted to do when he came home this summer was spend some time with Willow and Jessie, maybe learn a little dueling and fighting on his own and with Sam, tinker with his wands and whatever other projects he felt like, and just generally goof off.

Now he was learning the mind arts, being taught to fight like someone was trying to kill HIM, learning all kinds of crazy stuff all because he'd been stupid enough to get himself on the sideline of the life of Harry James Potter.

"Crap!" He muttered, shaking his head.

At least Harry had to be dealing with worse than this, after all he was the guy people actually WERE trying to kill.

Xander sighed and rolled over, trying to get some sleep.

It was going to be a long, hard, day when dawn came.


	70. Chapter 70

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

He had been so right on that guess that Xander almost wanted to cry.

Occlumency lessons with Davis actually started out fairly easy, as the man was actually an easier taskmaster than Chayton had been, but they were long and interminably boring. All he had Xander do was build basic defenses, over and over again, then he'd knock holes in them with a Legilimency assault and they'd start over yet again.

After that it was back to training with Chayton, getting run into the ground by the magical equivalent of a former special forces operative was a lot less fun than it sounded in theory, Xander had long since realized.

Still, Chayton showed him all the basics of dueling, tricks used by higher level Auror units to offset the sometimes steep differential in power between them and their opponents. It had sounded odd to Chayton that the Pride would be in that sort of situation so often, but Chayton had an answer for that as he did for most questions Xander came up with.

* * *

"Members of the Proud aren't always the most magically potent, kid." Chayton had replied, "Truth is, really powerful wizards and witches more often show up on the business end of a Pride wand than the casting side."

Chayton shrugged, "Don't get me wrong. We're all in probably the top 90 percentile, but the Proud gets most of its recruits between 90 and say, 95. The leaders of a Dark Band like your terrorist group in England tend to be in the 95th to 99th percentile. They have to be to control a group of thugs that just want to go out and do whatever acts of savagery they want."

"That doesn't sound like they're that much more powerful." Xander frowned, doubtfully.

"The problem is that there's no top end to magic levels," Chayton responded, "so I'm not saying that I'm 90% as powerful as you can GET. It's a bell curve, with non magicals at one end and magicals at the other. Someone in the 99th percentile could be dozens of times stronger than someone in the 90th."

Xander cringed, "Oh."

"Yeah," Chayton said flatly, "And by most accounts your Voldemort fellow over there is probably among the few Wizards who might credibly claim to be a level above even those. Britain, right now, holds a lot of people because of Albus Dumbledore, for example..."

Xander blinked, "My headmaster?"

"Likely one of the most powerful Wizards on the planet. In fact, at this point in time, there's no one out there disputing his position as number one, except Dumbledore himself." Chayton shrugged. "If there's anyone out there with more sheer power, the guy's probably a hermit who doesn't like dealing with people. Or, it's someone who's warded off some personal kingdom to rule over and doesn't give a damn for the rest of the world."

"You're kidding."

"It happens, kid. Every now and then we have to break wards over some town somewhere and clear out some yahoo who's moved in and taken over." Chayton shrugged, "And those are the ones we find. If someone with enough power were to us, say a Fidelius variation... would we even know to look?"

Xander's jaw dropped open and he shook his head. Magic was really SCARY as he started delving deeper into it.

"Keeps the Obliviators real busy when something like that happens," Chayton shrugged. "Even so, a few always slip the nets."

"What happens then?"

"Nothing much. Conspiracy theories, tales of vampires and magic, that kind of stuff gets ignored by the non magicals. If an Obliviators gets ahold of it fast enough the source gets to go back to his old life without any big issue. If not, well he generally winds up in an institution somewhere."

"That sucks."

Chayton nodded, "Yeah. It does. Like I said, though, the Obliviators try and find them and get them back to where they should be. Once in a while we get a runner who goes deep. They can make themselves a pain in our collective ass."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. There's always a couple of them in the wind, trying to warn the world about us. Usually they don't know what 'we' are, which only makes them sound crazier. There's a couple out there now we're trying to hunt down," Chayton shrugged, "Guy by the name of Cade Foster, and another guy named Jarod. No last name, just Jarod. Both of them are sneaky shits, let me tell you. We'll get them sooner or later, though, but it takes years sometimes. One guy named Kimble, a few decades ago, took us four years to track down and get his life back together. Honestly, if they'd stop running it would work out better for them."

Xander just shook his head, "I didn't realize people were finding out so often."

"Yeah, can't keep a secret this big. What we do is mostly keep it so that 'sensible' people don't believe the truth when they hear it." Chayton chuckled, "Easier that way. Now come on, enough of a break, let's go back over the basics."

* * *

The 'Basics' for Chayton were a series of spells and exercises intended to provide maximum effect for minimum cost. This usually meant a combination of magical power and Newtonian used to best effect.

As Xander learned quickly, most shields in common use were best suited to specific types of attacks. The first shield most people learned, the Protego, was actually only mediocre against spells. It could, however, stop a fusillade of bullets without even slightly wearing out the wizard who was crouched behind it. More powerful shields had different specialties, culminating in the Imprimis Shield, which was pretty much a solid all round defense against anything up to the so called Unforgivables.

The trick for a full LEO was to know the spells coming at him and respond in the blink of an eye with the correct shield to stop the attack, while still only using a minimum of power to do so. It was a trick that was beyond the abilities of almost all recruits, and even many veterans.

So the Proud had instituted a training regimen that used what they called hybrid defenses, very low power yet extremely high effectiveness spells that worked in probably ninety percent of encounters. Magic being what it was, there was nothing that worked in EVERY situation.

Xander found these tricks easy to learn, but Chayton wasn't happy with him 'learning' them. He had to BE them. They had to come to his front mind as his first reaction, even second nature wasn't enough for the big Native American.

And so Xander worked.

* * *

"How is he doing?"

Davis considered for a moment before answering, "Adequately, I expect. Don't look for miracles, My Lady. However, his basic defenses should be back to where they belong for a normal child his age quite soon."

"Any sign of... other abilities?"

"Possibly. It's too early to tell, however." Davis shrugged, "As open as he was, I'm shocked his mind is as clean as it is. The home wards around the Harris place are barely adequate to the task."

"They're planning on moving soon, we'll see that their new place is better defended."

"Get them off this infernal portal." Davis said, a little incredulously.

"They're well-hidden here, and the danger is minimal to Wizards." Lady Lavelle shrugged, "The Ministry's man in Sunnydale keeps things well in order."

Davis sighed, but nodded. Wilkins was an obsessive man, but that was a trait that served the bureaucrat well. When the Ministry heard that a town was forming right on top of the damned hellmouth, of all places, they'd dispatched Wilkins to oversee things. So far he'd kept everything nice and orderly, with a minimum of trouble for the ministry.

Chances were the old Wizard would be able to keep the Harris' alive and well without any hassle.

Davis shuddered a bit, though. Honestly, what kind of man stays on a duty station like the Hellmouth for near on a hundred and fifty years?

"Very well, My Lady."

* * *

June had given way to July, and the date for Xander's return to England was approaching fast. Xander, in turn, was getting more and more frazzled as the work kept piling on. They'd bought the old junk yard, found a couple squibs to run it, and another couple to drive the wreckers. Xander had never seen his mom so happy as when she was tearing through the books and working on the business side of things.

Kinda creepy really.

They set up the front office as a magic free zone, with computer, TV, and stuff. But the old metal buildings to the back were Xander's project areas, and nothing with a microchip need apply for entrance. They moved their wand, spell phone, and other research stuff back there and immediately Willow and Sirius practically moved in. Once they got a Floo hookup in place, Wednesday joined them, which resulted in a combination of personalities that scared Xander more then vampires.

Still, he checked in with them as much as he could, and mostly just wished he could do some of the work himself. Just to relax, if nothing else. Wand theory was moving along a bit, but only in that they were getting more and more basic information on core components.

Willow's hair worked, for example, as did Xander's and Wednesdays. Willow hair wands tended to be a bit better for charms, Xander hair for transfiguration, and Wednesday hair (in a shocker that shocked no one) held an edge in curses.

What did surprise them a bit was that when Xander had a chance to try out the new wands, he bonded fairly well with both the Willow and Wednesday wands, while they in turn seemed to prefer the Xander one. That led into a flurry of conjecture on emotional bonds and such, that mostly went over Xander's head, though he did get the gist of it.

All that and more went into the database Willow was working up on the front office computer, and Xander was fairly certain it would all be useful eventually. After all, Willow was one of the smartest girls he knew, and she swore by the idea of a database.

He wondered, though, if there were a magical version available so she wouldn't have to run back and forth with hand written notes all the time. He made a note in his journal to check into it, maybe get some books on the computer stuff too, so he could see what exactly the thing was doing.

More work.

If he were just a little more tired, Xander would have cried.

* * *

By the time the day came to go back to Britain, Xander did cry a bit, just in relief. Spending half the summer away from Willow and Jessie was going to suck, but hell he wasn't spending any time with them HERE as things were.

At least in England with the Malfoy's he'd only have to worry about keeping up his conditioning.

He double checked his gear, looking through the trunk to make sure he had the extra wands, spell phones, materials, notes, and everything he needed for a school year at Hogwarts. He expected to be running around London on his own a bit as well, so he'd changed a few hundred bucks over to pounds to get him by until he got to a bank.

There was a letter from Sirius to Harry in the mix, of course, as well as his newly minted 'Wand Crafter' permit. Xander smiled when he saw that, it felt good to have it even if the test had been stupidly easy. He was happy as well that he'd gotten Robert to secure a place for Willow at the exam as well. She'd scored higher than him, of course, which surprised no one. What no one else but he and Willow knew, however, is that a lot of the things she got right and he didn't were stuff she remembered from the books they had, but they both had proven wrong or incomplete in the course of their own experimentation.

Legally they didn't mean a lot, except that it was a shortcut to being permitted to carry a backup wand in any member nation of the ICW. While, technically, he was only allowed the one wand that any Wizard was permitted, he could carry samples for 'sale'. And there was no provision for how those samples were to be transported.

So he had a few of their blanks, core components, and notes of course. In addition, Xander carried his Ollivander wand, and the carbon dual core 'curse wand' as his back up. He figured that if he needed a backup, more than likely it was going to be in a fight, so he packed 'heavy' as Chayton would say.

The portkey arrived as he was finishing up, so Xander gave Willow and his Mom a hug and kiss, shook hands with his dad, and promised Sirius to deliver the note and proposition to Harry as soon as he could.

Summer in England would be busy, but thankfully it didn't look to be as bad as summer in Sunnydale.

Xander said bye one more time, touched the portkey, and was yanked away.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy sighed as she watched her son curse at the families remaining house elf. Sammy was a good deal older than Dobby and belonged to Narcissa, not her husband, which was likely why the little thing was still alive she supposed.

"That will be all, Sammy." Narcissa said sternly as she made herself known.

"Yes Mistress." The house elf muttered quickly, popping away with a grateful glance at her.

"Honestly Draco, what did the poor thing do this time?"

"That worthless *elf* got my lunch order wrong." Draco scowled.

"Since your father gave Dobby his freedom, I permit you to give orders to Sammy. However, she is MY elf, Draco." Narcissa leveled an icy glare at her son, "Punishments are mine to determine."

"Yes mother."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at the sarcasm in her son's tone, "And might I remind you that you are not yet out from under my control either. I determine punishments for you as well."

"It was just an elf, mother!" Draco protested.

Narcissa sighed, "You have no idea what your position in society truly means, do you? It's my fault, I suppose. I should have known better than to entrust that your father would teach you what even he himself learned. Since he taught it to himself, I suppose he expects the same of you. He forgets that he wasn't born into the same station of life as you, I suppose."

Draco scowled. He didn't like it when his mother reminded him that his father, her husband, had been born a mere merchants son.

"Do you ever see me casually flinging terms like mudblood around, child?" Narcissa demanded sharply.

Draco winced, "But mother, you act like they're worthless all the time."

"Of course I do. It's expected among our peers. However being crass about it makes you look bad, and reflects on us all. Just because many of our 'peers'," Narcissa sneered slightly at the idea of considering Goyle and Crabbe in HER 'peer' group, "Are so low as to do so, does not mean you must be. Are you the elite of pureblood society, or are you a low born merchant's son?"

Draco scowled, but looked down at the floor. "The elite."

Narcissa sighed, "Draco, darling, these things are not there to make you feel the fool. We maintain our position through guile, intelligence, and breeding. Fail in any of those, and we are overrun."

"Yes mother."

Narcissa gathered her robes and took a seat across from him, "Now. Young Master Harris will be along today. You remember what I said, of course."

This time Draco really scowled. He supposed it would be worse having scarhead over, but having Xander staying over until school was in, was bad enough. He nodded, though, remembering his mother's words on the subject, and his father's agreement.

Narcissa eyed her son, hoping he wasn't going to completely screw this up. She did NOT want a blood feud with the Lavelle and Harris lines, even as badly damaged as they both were. With their allies, Narcissa was relatively certain that the Malfoy's would come out on top, but the attrition could be horrific.

And that was if the Addams Clan chose to stay out of it.

Oh she had torn into Draco for not letting her in on THAT little tidbit of knowledge, and to Lucius as well though later, and in private. That both of them had known that an Addams scion had come to Hogwarts and even THOUGHT to mention it.

Narcissa closed her eyes and counted quickly to ten in Latin.

After a moment she calmed enough to continue, "And now, about your behavior in Hogwarts."

"Mother, Father insists on that." Draco replied.

"Yes, Draco, I'm aware. And I'm not telling you to change outwardly, however it would behoove you to begin mending fences *within* the Slytherin dorms. You are aware that the faction you lead in Slytherin is now a minority?"

"Impossible!" Draco blurted.

"Hardly." Narcissa sighed, shaking her head. Seriously, she had believed that she had taught him better than this. Social manipulation was her bread and butter. "I spoke with the Greengrass heir last week, and I trust her observations on the matter. She estimates that you currently have solid control over less than a fifth the students in Slytherin, and tenuous control over another fifth perhaps. That means that three fifths have pulled away from you, Draco."

"Greengrass. That stupid bint wouldn't know real control if it bit her on the..."

"Draco!" Narcissa's voice cracked like a whip, silencing the boy. She took a breath and elected NOT to inform him of who Daphne Greengrass considered in nominal control of the remaining three fifths, barring a few true neutrals. That would certainly not go over well, and could lead to conflicts with their guest. "Be that as it may, can you honestly say that you control all of Slytherin?"

"All the purebloods who matter." Draco boasted.

"Oh Draco," Narcissa shook her head, her voice sorrowful. "Please tell me you don't truly believe that?"

"Of course I do, why shouldn't I? The families in my hand are the purebloods in control of our world. Why would I need anyone else?"

"I don't know." Narcissa replied, ignoring her son's look of triumph, "And neither do you. And that's the point. At the very LEAST those other people are resources to be tapped. I know few, if any, of the non-purebloods in your house at the moment, so let us take your Miss Granger as an alternate example."

Narcissa delicately ignored the whispered oath of 'mudblood' from her son's mouth.

"Miss Granger, though muggle born, is by all reports one of the smartest witches seen in decades. Can you honestly say that she will never accomplish anything one such as yourself might find... useful?"

Draco scowled, "If she lives."

"Indeed. However, the point remains. And if she can accomplish something useful to you, tell me... what might a muggle-born Slytherin accomplish?" Narcissa demanded, trying for the hundredth time or more to get it through her son's skull. "There are duties and responsibilities that come with your station, Draco!"

"Duties!? To that filth?"

"No. To yourself and your family and your WORLD." She lashed out, voice crackling with anger. "I agree, Draco, that their well-being is not your direct concern. However, if improving their well-being can lead to benefits for you or your family, then you do yourself a disservice when you harm them. Can you not understand this?"

Draco closed his eyes, "I don't like them, mother. They're beneath me... us."

"I never said they weren't. However even the animals that carry our post are useful and should be treated as such." Narcissa shrugged.

"You know that father wants me to act as I do."

"And your father likely has a reason. Follow his instructions, but watch for opportunities to build your own network of allies at the same time, Draco."

Draco sighed and nodded, "I will."

Narcissa nodded in thanks, hoping that he got it. She knew that her son himself didn't really know what he really believed anymore. The act Lucius demanded wasn't alien to him by a long shot, but it wasn't entirely his true self either. At least it hadn't always been. Now? Now, she wasn't certain anymore.

She sighed, glancing at the clock, and realized that if she didn't hurry she would be late to meet Alexander. Once again a simple discussion with her son over a house elf, of all things, had exploded into a lecture.

"It's almost time, do you wish to join me to meet Alexander?"

Draco sneered in response, causing Narcissa to sigh as she left. "Very well."

In the next room, Narcissa paused, closing the door behind herself, then looked around. "Sammy?"

"Yes Mistress?" The house elf popped into place almost instantly.

"Are you alright?"

The elf pulled at her ears and nodded vigorously.

"Good. In the future, leave if Draco or my Husband threatens you with a wand." Narcissa sighed. It was stupid, really. She shouldn't HAVE to give such a command. What kind of fool tried to damage their own property? Honestly.

"Yes Mistress."

"There will be one more for supper, please set accordingly."

"I'll see it done, I promises Mistress."

"Good. You may go."

The elf popped away, leaving Narcissa to get ready to leave herself.

* * *

Xander jogged in place, feeling like a total idiot, as the portkey set him down at the MRZ of the American Embassy in London. He could have picked up a key to one of several spots, but the Embassy staff had wanted to catch him for a brief chat before he was let loose in London, so to speak.

"Ah, Mr. Harris. Pleasure to see you again."

"Miss Simmons," Xander nodded, "Good to see you."

Jennifer Simmons smiled thinly at the young man who was checking himself to see if he'd lost anything in transit. He'd given her a hell of a lot of paperwork to deal with the last time she'd met him, but given the circumstances she didn't begrudge him that. A few of the low magical marines were looking forward to his arrival, actually, and asked her to give him their regards.

Low magicals weren't terribly well received in Magical London, so they were pretty happy with both being able to pummel Sirius Black a bit, and drive the Minister around the bend by keeping him from killing Black. The fact that Alexander's whereabouts had been in question for a while had even brought up some distinctly proprietary feelings in the Marines. They sort of considered him under their protection, now that they knew a bit about him and all. He wasn't a faceless wizard, now he was a good American boy trying to do the right thing.

Marines were suckers for that sort of thing.

For now, however, she wanted a bit of a talk with Alexander herself.

"Enjoy your portkey?" She asked, smiling slightly.

He gave her a bit of a dirty look, rubbing the side of his head. "I'll let you know when my head stops spinning. God these things are killers."

"Long distance ones are the worst," Jennifer agreed as she guided him out of the MRZ. "The distance is compounded by the arc of the key."

"Bwuh?" Xander blinked, confused.

"Has no one explained how Portkeys work yet?" She asked, amused.

"Nope." Xander shook his head.

"Unlike Apparition, Portkeys are a method of moving..."

"What, Apparition? That's for moving, isn't it?"

"No. When you apparate you..." She paused, considering how to describe it, "You stop being where you are, and begin being where you're going. You never actually move through the intervening space. For this reason anti apparition wards only affect the area they cover. You could, for example, apparate from one side of Hogwarts to the other with no ill effect. Do you follow?"

"I guess so. We can apparate through Hogwarts, but not into it?"

"In a manner of speaking. Strictly speaking, of course, you don't apparate through the wards, because you don't *move* in apparition. Portkeys actually move, however."

"So what happens if you tried to portkey from one side of Hogwarts to a spot on the other?"

Jennifer grimaced, "You don't want to know, most likely. If you don't charm the key correctly, and with enough power to arc *over* the wards, then you'll contact them. Upon contact, you'll... bounce."

Xander noted the look in her face when she said that, and grimaced, "That's not good, I assume?"

"No." She shook her head. "If you connect head on, perfectly with the ward, it'll simply bounce you back the remaining distance charmed into the key. This is bad enough, mind you, because you could potentially appear encased in the soil... though it's unlikely, due to safety measures in the spell. If you glance off at an angle, however, you could find yourself reappearing hundreds of feet or more in the air. A long distance portkey could send you thousands of feet, or hundreds of miles, or even more in any direction. And the limits on the safety charms only give you a margin of error of a few tens of feet. Appear hundreds of feet below ground, and they can't help you."

"Ouch."

"Indeed. Internal Ministries and the ICW heavily patrol all major portkey routes, and anyone who places wards along those lines are liable for heavy fines, prison time, or occasionally summary execution." She said, "people who have enough power and skill can create portkeys that have a high enough travel arc to move over most wards, however. Most ministry Key Makers are highly trained for this very reason, and it's why port keys are restricted and require a ministry permit to make. Illegal portkeys are extremely frowned upon, though they're only 'massively' illegal in most nations if you sell or give them to someone else."

Xander nodded, "Cool."

She smirked, "Any way, over long distances the arc of the key has to at least match the curve of the Earth, or the key tunnels through water and dirt, using up more power. A higher arc makes it safer for the people being transported, but also makes it longer and rougher."

"I'll say." Xander rubbed the back of his head. "So that's why it's so rough coming here."

She nodded in agreement, but he frowned as a thought struck him.

"I've taken shorter range keys in the states, and those were almost as bad."

"More wards and unchecked routes," She shrugged, "They arc those keys even higher than the trans-oceanic ones."

"Ah." Xander shook his head. "Man. Brooms bind up my robes, portkeys make me dizzy to the point of yakking, and Floo travel is just plain hazardous... I think I'll stick with walking as much as possible."

"Many wizards do, those born to non magicals use normal methods for short and mid-range transport, or simply apparate." Jennifer shrugged.

"That suck too?"

She chuckled, "Ironically, many describe it as being sucked through a straw, so yes I suppose it does."

"Goody." Xander replied dryly.

"Apparition isn't bad," She told him, still smiling. "For medium range travel, it's the best I've ever used. Long range takes too much power, though, and short range... well, I like walking."

Xander nodded as they arrived at her office, and she showed him in.

"Now, while we wait for Mrs. Malfoy to pick you up, let's talk a little bit about things I'd rather you didn't do while in England this time... you know," She smiled sweetly, "things like start an international incident?"

Xander gulped.


	71. Chapter 71

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy paused outside the American Embassy in London, glancing around a little distastefully and, though she would never admit it, just a little fearfully. Why the American Ministry of Magic would us such a Muggle place as their embassy she didn't know, but it was frankly making her skin crawl being there.

She lifted her head up slightly, ignoring the peons staring at her, and moved into the building. She immediately headed to the hidden door that protected the Magical Section of the building, trusting the wards to keep people from noting her passage any further, and swept inside. Once in there she relaxed, noting the comforting sight of robes and wands in evidence.

"Can I help you Ma'am?"

Narcissa glanced at the burly figure who had stepped in front of her, his face almost blank. "I'm here to pick up Alexander Harris."

"Yes Ma'am. Identification Please."

She scowled, but produced her wand. The man stiffened slightly, but nodded and accepted it from her then moved toward a desk at the back of the room. "Follow me, Ma'am."

She did as she was bade, and they came to a stop at the desk.

"Magical here to pick up Harris."

"Thank you, Corporal." The man behind the desk said, accepting the wand and sending the man back to his post with a nod. He then turned to Narcissa, "Name?"

"Narcissa Malfoy."

The wizard behind the desk produced his own wand, quickly casting a quick charm over hers, and then nodded before handing it back. "Welcome to the American Embassy, Mrs. Malfoy. I'll have Alexander sent for."

"Thank you." Narcissa accepted her wand and slid it back into her robes, acutely aware that from the moment her hand touched the wand to the moment she withdrew it from her robes, empty, she was being watched by no less than five men in the same uniform as the first.

The wait was, for Narcissa, tense but thankfully short as she only kept from looking about self-consciously with iron like control. Within a couple minutes, however, the young man she'd met in the Americas appeared in the room and smiled in her direction.

"Mrs. Malfoy."

"Alexander." She inclined her head slightly, "Shall we go?"

He nodded and, under the steady gaze of the men in the room, the two of them left. Once outside, Narcissa felt a bizarre sensation of mixed relief and apprehension at being out from under the gaze of the uniformed men, yet once again in Muggle London. She finally let out a slight sigh as some of the tension left her.

"Something wrong?"

She turned to see Alexander looking up at her curiously, maybe even a little concerned. She shook herself lightly, "Nothing of import, Alexander. I just don't like being about in muggle London. I feel like I'm being stared at."

"You are."

"What?"

He shrugged, "It's how you're dressed. You're a little out of place."

"I'll have you know that this is the finest fashion for a woman of my stature." She told him a little haughtily.

"For about two hundred years ago, sure." Xander told her, "Today? You look like you're going to a costume party. A really *really* expensive costume party, but that just makes people more curious."

She stared at him, perplexed, as they made their way to a warded area in order to summon the Knight Bus. "Seriously?"

He nodded.

Narcissa frowned slightly, she had known of course that her knowledge of the muggle world was incomplete, but if his statement held true in general than even what she believed she knew was, at the very least, badly dated. It didn't matter all that much, in general, since she spent next to no time even passing through the muggle world, but it did irritate her nonetheless.

"What is the height of fashion among the elite of muggles then?"

Xander looked at her, eyes wide, "You're asking me? I'm a jeans and Tee kinda guy, Mrs. Malfoy... oh, hang on..."

He went over to a roadside stand and glanced over the man's wares briefly, before dropping some change and taking a paper. When he returned he handed it to her and she noted it was the muggle version of the Daily Prophet. On the front was a woman in a jacket and trousers, though she had to admit that they were obviously tailored and of high quality.

"This is what women wear in the Muggle world?" She asked, skeptical. Still, as she looked around, she noted that it was in fitting with the general look of those around her, though massively better in quality than she was seeing.

Xander shrugged as they continued walking. "That's the Princess of Wales, she's got probably a small army of people making sure she's dressed to the nines. It also depends on what look you're going for, and where you're trying to fit in."

It was weird, Xander reflected, to be giving fashion advice to a woman. Still, some of the stuff he took for granted had sailed right on by Narcissa's port of call without pausing.

"For walking out and around like this, you want something more casual or a little less standout anyway I guess." He said. "She's probably dressed for some charity ball or something, not to mention all the photographers that chase her around all over the place. There's no dress code or anything, you can wear whatever you want, but if you dress like you are then people are going to stare and wonder where you're going that you'll fit in like that."

Narcissa glanced down at her dress robes thoughtfully as they crossed the ward line in the small alleyway that provided a secure stop for the Knight Bus. She supposed he had a point, she had never been stopped for being dressed oddly in the Muggle World, so she had just assumed that they were staring for some other reason.

Many of her friends, few though they were, had felt the same things when they had to cross through the Muggle World, and it never failed to make them nervous. It was always in the back of their minds that maybe the muggles had seen through them and knew they were witches.

* * *

The Knight Bus dropped them off a short distance from Malfoy Manor, leaving them to walk the rest of the way up. Narcissa would have preferred dual apparating herself and Alexander directly there, but it was inadvisable to do so with someone she didn't know unless it was an emergency. Occasionally magics could flare between people, and in the process of an apparition that could be nastily annoying.

So they walked at a leisurely pace until they arrived at the Manor, where Narcissa keyed Alexander into the wards as a guest and showed him inside. There was no one present, she assumed that Draco was hiding in his room, likely pretending not to sulk while doing just that, and Lucius was out to some Ministry event or another, either having to do with the upcoming Quidditch Cup or the Tri Wizard Tourney at Hogwarts in the coming year.

On that note, Narcissa eyed Alexander carefully for a moment and considered their previous conversation with a shade of irony.

"What?" He asked, suddenly nervous as she smiled just slightly at him.

"Just considering what to do about your disastrous dress sense."

"My what?"

"We'll have to get you fitted for Dress Robes, Alexander. I believe we have an appointment for Draco soon, I'll arrange for you to be fit at the same time." Narcissa declared, "Now, come along, I'll show you to the guest room."

"Whoa, whoa, I don't need dress robes..." Xander objected as he followed along behind her. "I told you, I'm a jeans and tee kinda guy."

"This year you need Dress Robes." She said firmly. "They're a requirement, it'll all be in your Hogwarts letter."

Xander blinked, "Really?"

She nodded.

That meant there was a reason for it, but why? Xander was perplexed, no one at Hogwarts had dressed up fancy before, had they? Had he just missed it somehow? Even at Christmas people were mostly in their school robes.

"Why?" He asked finally as Narcissa stopped by a door and pushed it open.

"The guest room," She nodded inside, then went on, "There will be a series of special events at school this year. Including one or more that will require formal wear."

"Oh." Xander blinked, noting that she hadn't really told him anything. The room was nice, though, a little too fancy for him but that wasn't a big deal. "What's it all about?"

"Technically, you aren't supposed to know that until school begins," Narcissa said after a moment, "However we warned Draco last week..."

And that didn't surprise him in the least.

"Hogwarts will be hosting the Tri Wizard Tourney this coming year, it's a rather large event and something of a big deal, internationally." Narcissa said after a moment's thought. "So with the tournament, there will also be a formal ball, several public events, and so forth. So you will require proper dress robes."

"Oh." Xander nodded, setting his trunk down by the foot of the bed. "Alright. So we'll go into Diagon for the robes then?"

"Hardly." Narcissa sniffed. Diagon Alley and Madam Malkins was good enough for common wear, and Hogwarts Robes, but not for formal wear. "I'll have you fit in with our tailor in Paris. It'll be next week, likely."

"Paris!?" Xander squeaked.

"Mother, is that y..." Draco appeared, then paused as he noted Xander. "Oh, it's you."

"Draco." Narcissa snapped sharply. "Manners."

Xander held his amusement as Draco reddened slightly, but closed his eyes and sighed.

"My apologies, Harris. That was rude of me."

"Don't worry about it."

Draco's eyes snapped open, and he looked at his mother expectantly. "You see, mother!?"

Narcissa sighed, pinching her nose slightly. "Draco, I don't believe he knows the proper forms. And Alexander, that was terribly rude of you."

"What?" Draco blinked.

"Huh?" Xander shook his head.

"A formal apology requires and formal response, Alexander." Narcissa said patiently. "The informal is acceptable between close friends or in certain situations where the offense, and apology, were both minor and in passing. However, when offered a formal apology you are required to accept it in the spirit it was given."

"Oh whoa." Xander blinked, "This is that aristocrat stuff, isn't it? I'm a Cali kid, I don't know anything about this stuff."

"Yes, I believe we can see that." She replied, a smile playing at her lips. "Still, I won't have you insulting any guests I may entertain while you are here, so you will be taking some lessons in comportment, and you will do your best to learn them. Mistakes may be forgiven, however a refusal to at least try will not."

Xander gulped, "Yes Ma'am."

* * *

Lessons would have to wait, however, as there was much to do and a limited amount of time to accomplish it in. Narcissa had lain the groundwork for Xander's arrival by going straight to the people who had the power to invest Harry with his family heritage. What had surprised Xander was the who she'd went to, though he supposed he shouldn't have been so shocked.

"Wait, the Royal family? But I thought the Ministry..." Xander said when Narcissa had told him, after Draco had left them alone.

"It's a Knighthood, Alexander. The ministry has no power to either grant or remove such." She informed him. "By its very nature, such a title comes from the Queen."

"Yeah, but you said that your husband and Albus, a weird team up I'd like to add," Xander said, shaking his head, "prevented Harry was being awarded it before."

"They prevented the ministry from presenting the case to the Royals." Narcissa corrected primly. "They also effectively sealed all evidence of what happened that night, which keeps us from using that event. The Steward is willing to hear your testimony, if you'll grant it under oath."

Xander blinked, but nodded. "Ok."

"First, however, we have things to do."

"Such as?"

"Better clothes, suitable for muggle use," Narcissa said with a sigh. "I don't suppose you can pick out something that won't embarrass us all?"

Xander grimaced, "How high class are we talking, here? I mean, really."

"The highest."

"Well... that's actually easier." Xander shrugged.

"Is it?"

"Yeah, I couldn't tell you anything about styles, but when it comes to class for men... it's all the same, just throw money at it." Xander shrugged. "We get a phone book and I can find a tailor in five minutes. Who are we meeting with, really, though?"

"The high steward over the Magical Realm." Narcissa replied, "Honestly a loftier title than the position actually warrants. At the moment it's a certain Baron Werths, a squib who rather enjoys what few times he gets to exercise his position."

"Ok, a Baron." Xander blinked, "Lord I wish I... hey, you know what? I do."

"You do what?"

"Have Hermione." Xander grinned, "That's first on our list. Meet with Hermione Granger."

"The muggle-born in your year? Draco's had some things to say about her."

"I'll bet." Xander smirked, "Anyway, if she doesn't know what I need and where to get it, she'll know how to find out."

Narcissa inclined her head slightly, "Very well. How do we locate her?"

That stumped Xander for a moment, until he blinked, "Owl her?"

Narcissa felt like slapping herself in the face for not thinking of the blatantly obvious, however she'd spent so much time considering the significant wards around Potter that they were rather locked in her mind. She nodded and immediately fetched a quill and paper for Xander.

* * *

One day, and several excruciating, and humiliating, hours of comportment lessons later, Xander found himself wandering through a rather well to do suburb of London, trying to locate number twelve.

It was easier said than done, though, so he sighed and pulled out his Spell Phone. One little trick he'd just barely managed to work out was going to come in handy here, Xander decided as he entered in the runic numbers that matched up with Hermione's telephone number. Thankfully he'd thought to ask for it, along with her address when he wrote to her.

Half a world away, another phone mystically tied to his, lit up in the quiet side office of an old junkyard. This phone was duct taped to an old rotary dial phone, and rested beside a haphazard monstrosity of Lego Technix that suddenly leapt to life as the spell phone whirred merrily to match the one in Xander's hand.

The Lego contraption began to twist and move, alternately turning the old dial on the rotary phone and letting go until the whole number had been placed. Then it waited for the telephone company to make the connection.

Back in London, and mindful of the fact that he was going to have an interesting phone bill, Xander waited for someone to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hermione, it's Xander."

"Xander! Are you still coming here today?"

"If I can find the place, yeah."

"Oh, where are you now?"

Xander looked around, telling her the name of the street he was one, and got a quick response.

"That's not far, I'll be right there."

So he closed the phone and waited a few minutes until a familiar figure came rushing around a corner.

"Xander!"

He grinned and gave her a hug in return as she hugged him, then she led him back down the way she had come. "I live down this street here."

"Cool. I was getting all turned around."

"First time in the area, so I wouldn't be surprised." Hermione said with a smile as she led him into her home.

"So, this is one of the infamous Hogwarts students I've heard so much about," A woman greeted them as they walked in.

"Oh Mum." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You only talk about four people, Hermione. Honestly, I wonder sometimes if that's all there are in that school of yours."

"Only four that matter, maybe," Xander said with a grin.

"A little full of yourself, aren't you young man?" She replied in kind.

"Well, you know, I AM a Slytherin."

"Xander! Cut that out, and Mum, don't encourage him." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Do you want anything to drink?"

Xander shook his head, "No. I'm looking for some advice though."

"Oh?" Hermione blinked.

"Oh, now I'm curious, what does a Wizard need advice on?" Her mother leaned forward.

"Clothes actually." Xander admitted.

Hermione blinked, then her mother pealed in laughter.

"And you come to MY Daughter!? Oh you poor, foolish boy."

"Mother!"

Xander just grinned at the byplay, "Well Ma'am, it's my experience that if Hermione doesn't know the answer... come hell or high water she will soon."

"Xander!"

Hermione's mother continued laughing, and Xander kept grinning, much to the annoyance of one Hermione Jean Granger. She growled, stamped her foot, and then finally sighed and gave up when her actions merely caused the laughter to redouble.

"Oh, my, I needed that." Mrs. Granger dabbed at her eyes. "And now you must call me Emma, young man."

Xander, mindful of his recent agonizing lessons in comportment, inclined his head slightly. "Charmed, Emma. I'm Alexander, or Xander to my friends."

Emma Granger raised an eyebrow at that, but merely smiled slightly. "What exactly brings you here about clothing, if I may ask?"

"I have a meeting with a Baron, soon, and I need fitting clothing for the event." Xander replied. "Wizard dress robes would be acceptable, but in this case non-magical formal wear would probably be better."

"I see," Emma said, somewhat surprised. "And the price range you're looking at?"

"I hesitate to say unlimited," Xander said, "But I need high quality, and speed, so I expect it to cost."

Emma nodded thoughtfully, "Unfortunately a proper Savile Row suit would be wasted on someone who has yet to reach their full growth. Not to mention that a rush job would be astronomical. Still, if this is a regular thing, you may want to make an appointment there for some time in the future, perhaps when you finish school. For this, I think Hermione's father's tailor will do. I can make some calls."

"Thank you," Xander said with a smile.

She merely nodded and reached for the phone, reminding Xander of something. He was pulling out a spell phone when a man walked in.

"Who's this then?"

"Daddy, this is my friend Xander from school." Hermione said, a little primly and coolly, letting Xander know that she was still a little miffed with him over the laughing thing.

"Really? Haven't seen anyone from that school since that McGonagall woman was here before your first year," Her father said with a wry smile, but a dry tone. "Was starting to think maybe it didn't exist."

Hermione rolled her eyes, giving Xander the impression that she'd heard that statement before. He stood up, nodding to the man, and extended his hand.

"Alexander Harris, Sir. Please, call me Xander."

The man took his hand, nodding approvingly as they shook. "Dan Granger. Nice to meet you, lad."

"Likewise, Sir."

Xander turned back to Hermione then, and offered her the Spell Phone he'd brought along. "This is for you, by the way, before I forget."

"If that's a ring box, lad, we need to talk." Dan said with a smirk.

"Daddy! Stop it, you're embarrassing me." Hermione objected.

"It's my job, now, isn't it?"

Hermione let out another much put upon sigh, then examined the phone curiously. "What is it, Xander?"

"I call it a Spell Phone," Xander said with a smirk.

"Oh you didn't." Hermione moaned while her father chuckled.

"Why does everyone say that?" Xander laughed, shaking his head, "Anyway it's what the name implies. Sort of a cell phone for magic, I figured you'd want one to talk to Harry and whoever."

"Harry?" Hermione lit up, "He has one? What's his number? How does this work?"

Xander rocked back on his heels, "it's a runic dialing system, so I set Harry's number to his first two initials and his last name in Norse Runes but..."

She flashed a hand up in his face, held out in a clear order to be silent, as she flipped the phone open and began moving the runic dials around. When she was done she put the phone up to her ear, comfortable as all non magicals would be with the general shape of the device.

"Hermione..." Xander said slowly.

"Hush, it's ringing." She cut him off.

A sound was indeed coming from Xander's pocket, causing a snicker to erupt from her father.

"Hermione..." Xander tried again.

"Be quiet, Xander, I need to talk to Harry." She said, turning away from him.

Xander sighed, pulling the phone he'd earmarked for Harry from his pocket and flipping it open. He put it up to his face, "Hermione..."

"Harry! Are you alright? You sound different... how did you know I was calling anyway...?"

"Hermione, I didn't give Harry his phone yet."

Hermione froze in place as her father and mother started snickering again, and drooped slightly as she closed her eyes and covered her face.

"Oh Bugger."

"Hermione Jean Granger! Language!"


	72. Chapter 72

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Once the furor of laughter and flushing humiliation on Hermione's part had died out, she turned her focus back to the little device Xander had gifted to her.

"This really is a brilliant piece of spell work," She said after having examined it, "I didn't see any notes you had on anything like this?"

"I made most of them just before and after school this year," Xander shrugged.

"You went from concept to this in less than a month?"

"It's mostly just ripped off from the phone company, you know. I didn't have to design anything, hell I even took the looks from Kirk's communicator." Xander laughed.

"Bloody brilliant, I wondered why it looked familiar." Daniel muttered, chuckling.

"It's just the protean charm linked into some runic identifiers. Ironically, it's a lot simpler to charm that way than the linked mirrors some magicals use." Xander said, picking at the plate of snacks Emma Granger had produced.

"Mirrors?" Emma asked, interested.

"Kinda like the whole Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall bit." Xander explained, "But you can talk to someone who has a matching mirror. Those all work on voice commands, and the spell work is kinda intense from what I can tell."

"Even so, this is excellent work. You have one, and Wednesday I assume?"

Xander nodded, "I'm A. , and Wednesday can be dialed at W. . Yours is H. , but we can change them if you have a combination you prefer."

"Fantastic. I do want to see your notes." Hermione said pointedly. She then paused and glanced at her parents, thinking for a moment, "Xander... do you... do you have an extra for my parents?"

The two adults looked at each other, surprised, then turned back to Xander as well.

"Not at the moment," Xander said, noting the disappointment on each of their faces, "But really, Hermione, just leave yours here with them for the year. You know mine or Harry's will be there for the asking."

Her eyes widened, and she nodded, "of course, you're right. Thank you."

Xander just smiled and waved it off, suddenly mindful of the fact that he could only do that because she was a friend, otherwise it would be rude. That resulted in him slapping the side of his head, and groaning in dismay at how insidiously Mrs. Malfoy's lessons had sunk into his head.

"Xander?" Hermione had leaned back slightly, "What's wrong?"

"Just trying to slap these stupid comportment lessons out of my head." Xander admitted, "You wouldn't happen to know the memory charm would you?"

"Xander! That's very dangerous."

"I'm joking, Hermione." Xander told her, rolling his head, "If you wiped my mind, Mrs. Malfoy would just make me learn it all over again. I'm NOT going through that more than I have to."

"Malfoy?" Hermione suddenly looked guarded, "What do they have to do with anything?"

"I'm staying there while school his out this summer," Xander admitted. "Among other things it's a little bit of family networking. She's also got me working on a project for her and Harry's Godfather."

Now Hermione was just totally lost. Everything Harry had said about Sirius was practically glowing, but now he was working with the Malfoy's? Something was starting to stink.

Xander, however, could practically read her thoughts just by watching her face twitch and smiled. "Relax. This has nothing to do with the Malfoy's, really. It's about the Blacks."

"Pardon," Dan broke in, "Who are these people, and why is my daughter looking about ready to break into a rant?"

"Daddy! I am not!"

He merely raised his eyebrows and sat back, giving her a pointed look.

"The Blacks and Malfoys are two Wizarding families, purebloods." Xander explained, cutting into Hermione's building head of steam. "The Malfoy's are... the expression my mother used was Neuveau Riche. New Money. The Blacks, well, they're... not. I'm not entirely sure of the history, but around twenty to twenty five years ago, the up and coming head of the Malfoy clan managed to secure marriage with one of the Black Sisters. It was an arranged marriage, a lot like buying a car is an arranged relationship. Malfoy paid a small fortune to then Baron Black, and received the hand of Narcissa Black in return, she was eleven at the time. Now, the marriage didn't happen until she finished school, but that was the deal."

Hermione was practically quivering in place, face turning red in outrage at the sheer idea, but her parents nodded in understanding.

"Gave him respectability, then?" Dan asked.

Xander nodded, "Right. He's used it well, too. It, along with a lot of his money, kept him out of prison when the war ended, and he's probably the third most powerful man in the Wizarding World at the moment."

"That figures." Dan muttered, "Alright, so why is Hermione so het up over this?"

"Lucius Malfoy is also probably the most likely person, at the moment, to either kill Harry Potter, or order him killed." Xander admitted candidly. "And, given the opportunity, he'd do the same to Hermione."

Hermione's eyes widened in terror, not at Xander's implications, but at how her parents might react to it.

"Why?" Emma muttered, leaning closer, her face horrified.

"I expect it has to do with that pureblood thing," Daniel said with a sigh.

Xander nodded, "That's the excuse anyway. The more I look into it, though... and I have actually looked into it, and talked about it with some people who are more familiar with it than I am, it really didn't have much to do with blood."

"What?" Hermione frowned, suddenly more curious about that statement than frightened of her parents' reaction.

"Most of the Death Eaters, that's the terrorist from the war," Xander said, nodding to the two adults, "Came from up and coming families like the Malfoys, or old line families that had been nearly destroyed by Grindlewald in World War Two. The solidly entrenched purebloods didn't support the uprising for one, obvious reason. They were already in charge."

Hermione blinked.

"Think about it, Hermione. How many laws out there are blatantly in favor or purebloods in one way or another?" Xander asked, shrugging, "Hell, how many non-magical borns are there in high office? I'll tell you, none. Old Mold in his Shorts little uprising was *against* the pureblood government. You weren't there in second year when we dealt with his shade, but Riddle said that he wasn't interest in pureblood superiority, only in power."

"But why pretend to be a pureblood then?"

"He built his army right under the governments' nose, with a lot of the people in power looking the other way or actively helping him." Xander shrugged. "You should check out some of the history texts they banned here in England, it really paints the war from a different perspective. Anyway, by the time they understood that he wasn't just targeting non magicals, well... it was pretty much too late. Moldy was winning the war, right up until he came face to face with Lilly Evans."

"You mean face to face with Harry." Hermione corrected.

Xander shrugged. This was the one area that he and his teachers didn't agree on. Xander couldn't understand why everyone was so damned sure that Harry had kicked old moldy's ass. Narcissa, Sirius, even Robert, they all seemed to believe the hype of the Boy Who Lived. It didn't make any sense.

"Maybe," He shrugged, "My money is still on Lilly Evans, though. She was a fully trained witch, by most accounts a member of the Department of Mysteries, and an expert on ancient magics. Who almost destroyed the Dark Lord? Her, or a one year old toddler?"

"Sounds sensible to me," Daniel Granger put in, impressed with the young man in front of him. "You studied this war?"

Xander nodded, "Also both sides of World War Two, and the American Civil War. One of my teachers is, well... he was present in both."

Dan stared at him, eyes wide, "You know someone who was alive in the American Civil War."

"Alive and in command of one of the Armies of the South." Xander replied with half a smile. "He's almost two hundred years old now, talking with him about the things he's seen beats our history class any day of the year."

"I'll say... wait, BOTH sides of World War Two?" Daniel asked, leaning forward.

"Well, on the Wizarding side of the war it wasn't really world war two. You see, World War One never ended." Xander explained, "Grindlewald just retreated to regroup his forces. Allied Magicals couldn't get through his defenses, so they tried to box him in. Didn't work."

"Never does." Dan rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, Grindlewald was one of those bad guys who actually lived up to his hype by all accounts," Xander said, "in the lull between wars in the non-magical world, he started reaching out to the groups that eventually became the fascists, nudging them along with some money here, a little compulsion charm there, whatever it took. When he was ready to make his move again, he timed it to match up with Hitler's push into Poland. What isn't in the non-magical books is that the Nazi rush into Poland annihilated a magical community of over eight thousand. In the process, Grindlewalds agents snuck in and stole two of the magical world's most powerful protective magics, the last crop of Fire Flowers, and the Magical Belt of Poland."

Hermione's gasp let everyone know that she understood the meaning of the loss.

"But the fireflowers were so protected... I thought they just finally died out."

"Maybe, but not then and there," Xander said, "Robert, one of my teachers, thinks that they and the belt still exist somewhere in one of Grindlewalds old fortifications. Anyway, those where just a bonus. The real goal was made clear afterwards, when huge portions of the magical armies allied to Poland shifted to respond to the attack. Grindlewald's forces used the distraction to break out of Romania and take magical control of Germany. As the Armies started to filter back into their old posts, Grindlewald had them picked off and slaughtered one by one and in small groups. That was the official start of the Second War, from a magical perspective."

Daniel Granger leaned a little closer, fascinated. Military history had always been one of his guilty little pleasures, with the second world war being one of the most interesting because of how wide spread its effects were. Hearing it from another perspective, with more information on things happening behind the curtain, was incredibly interesting. It helped as well that the young man speaking obviously loved the subject himself.

"Anyway, we're getting off track here to be honest," Xander said as he checked his watch, "And I've got another meeting I have to make. So I'll cut it short by saying that my original point is that the Dork Lord guy who waged the last war here in England was actually in an uprising against the *pureblood* held government. To be honest, he likely could have gone the other way, and picked non-magical borns as the group to 'champion'. He probably didn't because of the advantage he got while building his army, though. Old money from dying families who were looking for any way back to glory, new blood from the newly rich families who were chafing under the control of the Wizengamot, and finally a free pass from the only people who really had any chance of stopping him. The Wizengamot knew what he was doing, almost from the start, but didn't care because he was targeting non magicals. And basically, that's the same group of people who are still in charge today."

"Bleedin wonderful, then isn't it?" Daniel muttered.

Xander shrugged with half a smile, "And since Lucius Malfoy is one of those people, and one of the terrorists who fought in the war... allegedly anyway, you can see why Hermione is concerned. I'll say this, though, Herms..."

Hermione glared at him when he shortened her name.

"Narcissa isn't anything like her husband, and in school, her best friends were Alice Prewitt, a puff who married Frank Longbottom..." Xander paused, smiling at Hermione's jump as she recognized the name, "And Lilly Evans. You know who she married, right?"

Hermione blinked, shocked into silence as she leaned back.

"And you know me," Xander went on, "So please, trust me, I'm not joining with Lucius on anything. Hell, I didn't even show your letter to Mrs. Malfoy."

Hermione swallowed, but nodded. "Alright, I'll trust you, but be careful."

Xander chuckled, "I'm not the one who keeps getting into adventures. Tell that to Harry when you chat next."

She scowled at him, "Dementors. Basilisk. Troll."

"Hey! You really want to start comparing life threatening situations here in front of your parents?"

Hermione blanched white as her parents glared pointedly at her.

"Thought not." Xander smirked, "Anyway, I have to go. Mr. and Mrs. Granger, it has been a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me into your home. Please, if there's anything you need feel free to contact me, and I'll be waiting for news concerning the tailor, yes?"

"Of course," Emma said, smiling at the sudden shift to formality in the young man. "I'll have Hermione call you on your... spell phone."

"Perfect. Until the next time, then."

* * *

The Knight Bus was far from an ideal method of travel, in Xander's opinion. The driver was a lunatic, the bus had beds, and nothing was bolted down. This particular combination led to a number of the craziest things Xander had ever seen on a moving vehicle in his life during the short ride between Hermione's neighborhood and Little Whinging, Surrey.

The bus was played up as 'emergency transport for the stranded wizard', but in reality it was a bus like any other. It had its normal routes and its scheduled pickups and drop offs, as well as regular bus stops where it was preferred that Wizards would meet it. Like anything wizards had a hand in, however, it went beyond all that as well. A wave of a wand, combined with a little fear or desperation, and the Bus would zero in on you like a smart bomb and pick you up anywhere you might be.

Useful to say the least.

For now, though, Xander was going from official points of embarkment and drop off only, since it was easier on the bus charms, not to mention the poor non magicals who inevitably had to be obliviated if and when those charms blinked, as they often did.

Frankly, he could have done without the ride.

His steps meandered, almost drunkenly across the sidewalk as he made his way up Privet Drive, coming to a stop at Number Four. It was a suburb home, the same cut as every other in site, and the same as dozens of others he'd passed to get there. The lawn was immaculate, and the garden outside impressive, but in general it was perfectly normal.

Boring.

Xander was already missing his junkyard, to be honest.

That thought in mind, and a grin on his face, he made his way up the driveway and walked to the front door. A quick ring of the bell brought a rumbling from inside as someone shouted, "I'll get it!"

Xander blinked in surprise as he heard thunderously loud footsteps and actually saw the walls quiver slightly as the steps got closer.

' Damn, does Hagrid live here or something? ' Xander thought, amazed by the growing volume.

The door was wrenched open and an obese man looked out, then down at Xander.

"Well?" The man rumbled, "Who are you?"

"Alexander Harris, Sir. Vernon Dursley, correct?"

"That's right boy, what is it now? I'm a busy man."

"I'm here to see Harry Potter."

Mr. Dursley shifted from indifferent to nearly vibrating in place as he glared down at Xander. "There's no Potter here!"

The door slammed in Xander's face, causing him to fall back a step in surprise.

"Whoa." He muttered, looking around.

Had he gotten the wrong place? He didn't think so. Besides, it was Vernon Dursley. Maybe he had the wrong Dursley, though? No, Xander shook his head, Narcissa's information confirmed the address and came from an entirely separate source.

Xander stepped back and looked up at the house. This had to be the right place, didn't it?

That was when a whisper from above caught his attention.

"Psst. Xander, is that you?"

"Harry?" Xander looked up, craning his neck. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Just locked in my room."

"What for?"

"Nothing, just finished my chores for the day."

' Oh Boy. ' Xander sighed. Things were apparently worse than he'd thought, and maybe worse than Sirius had feared. "Alright, I'll be right up."

"Xander? What? No!"

Xander ignored him and hammered on the door until he once more heard the sound of the land whale approaching.

The door flung open as the red faced man glared out, "I bloody well told you, there's no Harry Potter here."

Xander glared back, clearing his jacket like a Wild West gunfighter, and exposing the two wands tucked into his belt.

"Mr. Dursley," He said through clenched teeth, "I'm here to speak with Sir Potter on behalf of his Godfather, The Lord Baron Black. Now, you have two options. You can smile politely so all your neighbors can see, and invite me in... Or I can clear your bulk from my road and invite myself."

Dursley reddened even more, making Xander think that the man wasn't long for the world with blood pressure like that. "Don't try to threaten me, boy. You're from that school of your kinds, and I know you can't use magic during the Hols."

Xander smiled thinly, purposely adopting a really bad Texas twang to his voice as he spoke. "Well now, ya see we have a problem. First thang is, I'm an American. So you see, I don't much expect your ministry to be able to monitor me. Second thang, well I'm an American. We shoot first and worry about the consequences later, ain't that right?"

He closed his hands over both wands, smiling nastily at the fat man until Dursley went pale and fell back a step.

"Please... come in." Vernon choked out. "I'll get the boy for you."

"Why thank you," Xander said, tipping his head slightly, "That's mighty kind."

He stepped inside while Vernon blundered up the stairs, not bothering to close the door. Xander slid it shut softly and looked around the inside of the home. It was pristine and smelled vaguely of antiseptic, everything in its place and nothing worn or even used as far as he could tell. It looked like it was waiting for people to move in, not like a home that had been lived in for decades.

"Xander?" Harry spoke from the top of the stairs. "Why are you here?"

Xander smiled, which turned into a bit of a smirk as he drew himself up right, conscious of the eyes of Vernon Dursley as well as a woman and fat boy from the far end of the hall.

"Sir Potter, I bring you a message from your Godfather, the Lord Black in Exile."

Xander took a certain unholy pleasure in the audible moment of shock that rolled over the occupants of the house, and barely refrained from giggling at the sight of Harry's face alone.

* * *

Sunnydale.

Jessica Lavelle Harris stood frozen in shock for a moment when she saw who was at the door.

"L... Lady Lavelle." She swallowed, backing away to admit the old woman. "Welcome to my home once more."

"Jessica." The Lady nodded her head slightly as she stepped in. "It is good to see you again."

"What brings you by now? Alexander has returned to England..."

"I know, I'm here to speak with you on other matters, Jessica." The Lady Lavelle said as she accepted a seat in the living room.

"Of course." Jessica ducked her head, "I'll prepare refreshments..."

"No need. Please, sit. We have things to discuss."

Jessica sat down with trepidation, trying to figure out why the reigning matriarch of her Line was sitting in her living room.

"Relax, Jessica, it's nothing bad." Lady Lavelle smiled reassuringly.

Jessica swallowed, but nodded.

"Tell me, have you considered having any more children?"

Jessica blinked, then stared owlishly. "What?"

"I'm curious, have you and Tony thought about having a larger family?"

' She called Tony by his name! ' Jessica thought, shocked. The Lavelle branch didn't have much care for the Harris family, not even their wizards, let alone low magicals.

"I... I can't say that we have, not seriously." Jessica stammered out, "Cost of living being what it is, and... to be honest, we didn't do well with Alex when he was younger. We've made mistakes..."

"All new parents do, Jessica."

"Not like this." Jessica smiled sadly, shaking her head. "We did wrong by Alex. It's a miracle that he's as well adjusted as he is."

"Then maybe this is a chance to do things right?"

"Why are you asking this?" Jessica's mind was starting to catch up to the situation, the shock passing, and she knew that something was up. "Why now? I would have thought, maybe when Alex was discovered to be magical if at all..."

"We waited to see how he would turn out," The Lady Lavelle said with candid honesty. "We are impressed."

Jessica blushed a little, happy that her son had measured up to the standards of the family. More than measured up, to be clear. Otherwise they wouldn't care. Her mind clicked and she settled back, sighing in understanding.

"Davis." She said, nodding. "I see."

"Perhaps you do. Will you consider it?"

Jessica thought for a moment, then nodded, "I'll speak with my husband. The family will support us this time?"

Lady Lavelle nodded.

"Alright, I'll talk with Tony. We'll let you know."


	73. Chapter 73

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"What are you on about, anyway?" Harry hissed, pulling Xander into the kitchen, away from his 'family'.

Xander just grinned unrepentantly, "Come on, the looks on their faces was awesome."

Harry glared at him, then closed his eyes and finally smiled a bit. "It was wasn't it?"

Xander nodded, grinning widely.

"What did Sirius have to say?" Harry sighed.

"Actually, that's the funny thing..."

"Xander..." Harry growled.

Xander grinned unrepentantly, "Believe it or not, the message is pretty much what I told you guys. 'Cept you're not a Sir yet."

"What?"

"You don't know much about the Potters, do you?" Xander asked, mostly rhetorically.

Harry looked down for a moment, then shook his head. "I know I look like my dad, with my Mum's eyes... Mum was brilliant, or so people say, and Dad was a natural flyer. More than that?"

Harry just shrugged.

"Yeah, we figured that. Look, the Potter family has a Hereditary Knighthood," Xander said, "It's conditional, basically kicks in when you do a service to the realm."

Harry grimaced, "Voldemort."

"Well, yeah, but not the one you're thinking about. The Wizengamot locked up all the evidence on what happened to you as a baby, so that's right out." Xander said, "But you know, killing a huge honking snake to save the life of a citizen of the realm, not to mention protecting the school, that qualifies."

Harry blinked, "Really? But, I mean, you were there too."

"My family didn't earn a hereditary knighthood," Xander said with a lopsided grin, "So I guess I'd have to earn mine the hard way. Anyway, that's part of it. More to the point, Sirius wants to ask you if you're willing to take on the duties of the Regent of House Black."

"What?"

"You heard me, man."

"I meant what duties, git." Harry snapped.

"Well, there I can't help you too much, but some of it would be political, some of it would be family related." Xander shrugged, "Stuff like readmitting Sirius' cousin, Andromeda to the family."

"Why would I have to do that?" Harry frowned, confused, "I didn't know you could kick someone out of the family. Would have expected the Dursleys to have done that to me by now."

Xander rolled his eyes, "She married a Wizard born to non-magical parents. Sirius' mum was a real bitch, apparently, and his dad was whipped. So Sirius wants you to ask her if she'd like to be readmitted, and then do so if she wants in."

"I can do that I guess," Harry frowned, "But I don't know anything about running a family."

"Well, you'll have Andromeda, Sirius, and Mrs. Malfoy to help."

"What!? Why would I accept help from a Malfoy?" Harry practically snarled, "Draco and Lucius..."

"Are pricks, yes I'm aware. Draco's mother, though, is Narcissa Black." Xander said clearly, "She's a pureblood, and proud of it, but she's not stupid about it either. Besides, you'll need advice from someone who thinks like that."

"I can't trust a Malfoy, Xander."

"Harry, this is politics. You can't trust anyone," Xander grinned, "Doesn't mean you can't listen to them, though."

"Can't Sirius just tell me what to do?"

Xander shrugged, "Legally, Sirius can't have contact with anyone in England. Oh yeah, that reminds me... here."

Xander fished a spell phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Harry, who caught it and goggled at it for a moment.

"What's this?"

"Spell Phone. Sirius' number is S. ." Xander said with a smirk. He still couldn't believe Sirius hadn't gotten the gag when he assigned the number to his phone.

Harry opened the flip part of the phone eagerly and then stopped and stared, "These aren't letters."

"No, they're runes." Xander said.

"I can't read this."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, Man, this is what taking Care and Divination gets you. Here..."

He twisted the dials to the right combination, then handed it back to Harry. "That's the combination to Sirius' phone. Just hit the center rune to connect."

Harry did so quickly, then hesitantly lifted the phone to his ear. "S... Sirius?"

Xander stepped away, giving Harry some privacy to talk to his Godfather.

* * *

Xander was leaning on the door frame that led to the kitchen, giving Harry his time alone when a thin woman approached him.

"Were you serious about what you said?" She demanded.

"About what? The Sir stuff?" Xander asked with a shrug. When she nodded, he went on, "Mostly. He's not a Knight yet, but the Potter family holds a hereditary slot I guess. Harry qualifies. His Godfather is Lord Black, though, and this little meeting is semi-official."

"About what?"

"The Black family is in need of a Regent, at least until Lord Black can get his legal status cleared up in Britain." Xander replied. "Harry has enough swing to make things happen, and he's a Black through his grandmother I think, so if he accepts he's the best choice."

"Will he be moving out?"

Xander looked at the woman, wondering at the slight tone of tension in her voice. "I don't know. I guess that'll be up to him, as far as I know anyway. What does it matter? It's not like he's here more than a couple months a year anyway."

She seemed to want to say more, but then just left. Xander watched her leave, but finally shrugged it off. None of his concern.

"Xander?"

"Hey man, you talk to the mutt?" Xander asked as Harry came out of the kitchen.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah. I did. I'm in."

"Cool." Xander said, pulling out his own phone. He spun the dials around with his thumb, then punched the middle rune and waited for it to connect. "Herms? Yeah, could you ask your mother to make that an appointment for two? Yeah, I'm bringing a friend. It's a surprise, that's who. What do you mean, you don't like surprises? Everyone likes surprises. Yeah, yeah. Just call me when you have a time. Thanks."

Harry watched, amused, when Xander flipped the phone shut. "Herms?"

Xander shrugged, grinning, "Lord she hates that name."

"I'm shocked you get away with it." Harry chuckled, "What's her number on this thing anyway?"

"HJ Granger," Xander said, "In Ancient Norse."

Harry grimaced, "Were you TRYING to make these insanely hard to use?"

"I don't know, were *you* trying to actually learn anything when you took *Divination*?" Xander countered, rolling his eyes. He'd heard about those classes, hell the entire school knew about Harry's Divination classes. "I mean, other than the date of your death and all."

"Ugh." Harry groaned, "Don't remind me. I hate that class."

Xander shook his head, "I can't figure out what you were thinking. Ok, seeing the future? Cool in concept, but seriously... if you could teach people to do it, would you?"

"Huh?" Harry blinked.

"I wouldn't." Xander admitted candidly. "I'd just quietly buy my lotto tickets and play the markets. Last thing I'd want is a bunch of teenagers screwing up my income cause they knew how to tell the future too."

"What are you talking about?" Harry looked totally lost.

Xander grinned, shaking his head, "Harry... anyone who tells you that they can teach you to read the future, is scamming you. No one is stupid enough to give up a secret THAT good. Care sounds sort of exciting, though. I think I would have thought about it if I'd known Hagrid would be teaching. Seriously, that guy needs a wakeup call when it comes to the concept of 'dangerous to little KIDS', but his classes' sure sound like they'd be fun to watch."

Harry shook his head. He really wanted to defend his friend, but even he had to worry about Hagrid sometimes. Not to mention about what Hagrid might do without thinking something through.

He sighed, putting that aside for a bit, "What do we do now?"

Xander shrugged, "Dunno. We need new suits, but that'll have to wait until we get a call back from Herms. Her mom is setting it up. Tell me you don't wear those on purpose, cause man... even my Hawaiian shirts aren't that ugly."

Harry looked down at the cast offs he'd inherited from Dudley and sighed, "These were Dudley's."

"The guy needs a diet." Xander said simply, shaking his head.

"He's on one." Harry grinned before glancing around guiltily. "And is NOT a happy camper."

"Alright, you have money?"

Harry shook his head, "Just a few galleons."

"Ok, I'll spot you some English cash, I've got a few hundred dollars' worth. We'll get you some decent casual wear." Xander said after a moment, holding up a hand as Harry started to object. "Don't worry about it, I'll get it back from Sirius. Or, you know, from you when you have access to the vaults and all."

"Are you sure?" Harry wasn't quite as concerned as Ron was over who had money and all that, but he didn't like the idea of freeloading off anyone. His 'family' had long accused him of just that, and it was a bit of a raw nerve.

Xander just nodded, "Yeah. You need some clothes, man. You're not just Harry Potter, you know. You're about to be Sir Potter..."

"Sir Harry."

"Huh?" Xander blinked.

"You use the first name for Knighthoods," Harry explained.

"Really?" Xander grimaced.

"Yeah, why?"

"Ech." Xander shook his head, "Sir Harry sounds stupid, glad it's you man."

"Oy!" Harry objected.

Xander just ignored him and went on, "Oh, and we need to buy a blank book. A journal or something like that."

"What for?"

"You've got the Marauder's Map, right?" Xander asked.

Harry nodded hesitantly, not really wanting to give away one of his more prized secrets.

"Well, I think it's time you got your own copy of the Coven Grimoire."

* * *

The closest mall to Privet Drive wasn't much, all things considered, but it suited for what Xander and Harry needed. After they'd gotten Harry a selection of Tee Shirts, Jeans, new shoes and the like, they unceremoniously tossed his hand me downs in a dumpster and checked out the closest thing the place had to a stationary store.

A suitable journal was not to be found in the place, leaving Xander to sigh.

"Well, a trip to Diagon will probably turn up something." He said as Harry looked over the pens and writing tools in the place. "You see something you like?"

"Huh?" Harry looked up, surprised.

Xander rolled his eyes, "Come on. We've got some things to finish before we're done for the day."

Harry nodded and the two left the mall.

"Xander..." Harry trailed off, sounding uncertain.

"Yeah?" Xander looked back, noticing Harry looking away sharply as he did. "What?"

"Did... Did my mum really write that book you told me about?"

"She helped." Xander said, "Along with Draco and Neville's mothers."

Harry grimaced, "That's just too weird. Why would my mum have anything to do with Draco's mum?"

"Why would your Dad have anything to do with Sirius?" Xander countered with a shrug, "They were both Blacks back then. Draco's a tool, but I think that mostly comes from his dad."

"I guess." Harry muttered, unconvinced.

"You don't need to take my word for it, and hell I don't know that I would trust Mrs. Malfoy if I were you anyway," Xander replied, "Best I can see is that she's really only concerned with the Black family, she doesn't care too much about you."

"Too much?"

"Well, she was your Mom's friend, so there's probably something." Xander said thoughtfully as they walked, "But the fact that your grandmother was Dorea Black is probably more important to her in a lot of ways."

"So... I'm related to Sirius?" Harry asked, sounding hopeful, "By blood I mean?"

"I guess. Also to Mrs. Malfoy and Draco," Xander smirked.

Harry grimaced, then groaned.

Xander chuckled, then went on, "That would also make you related to Andromeda and her daughter, and there's another Black sister in Azkaban I think."

Harry nodded, "I've heard a little about her. Bellatrix I think."

"Not sure beyond that, though. Just guessing, but the way purebloods are, you're probably related pretty much to every one of them in some way or another." Xander said with a smirk, then paused and grimaced.

"What? What's wrong?"

"I just realized that my Mom and Dad are both from pureblood lines too. Lord, I'm probably the product of kissing cousins myself." Xander admitted with a sigh. "I'll have to check and see how badly messed up the American lines are, just out of curiosity if nothing else."

"You didn't know?" Harry blinked.

"What? About my family?" Xander shrugged, uncaring. "Nope. Never really cared, to be honest."

"Why not?" Harry was baffled, he couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't care. "I wish I knew more about my family."

"Yours are dead," Xander said, then winced, "Sorry, but I mean... mine are living and don't care enough to check up on me. Why would I care about them? Why don't you know more about your family, anyway, man?"

"I know a bit." Harry said defensively. "I mean, I've seen some photos that Hagrid got me and stuff. Dad was a great flyer, and really good at transfiguration. Mum was a genius at charms, I think..."

Harry trailed off a bit, looking sad, "No one seems to want to tell me about them."

"Probably tough to talk about dead friends to their son," Xander said after a moment, "I guess I'm surprised that they didn't tell you more than that when you asked, though."

Harry was silent for a bit, "Yeah. Hagrid told me a bit about them, but that's it."

"Who all did you ask?"

"Hagrid, and I guess Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore." Harry said.

"You guess?" Xander stopped walking, turning to look at Harry incredulously. "How do you 'guess' you asked them?"

"We talked a bit about them, I mean. I asked what they were like... I think." Harry looked confused.

"Harry, man..." Xander hesitated, "Mate. You've got to do more than guess."

"Huh?"

"I told you, people aren't going to just come up and start talking to you about your dead parents." Xander said, shaking his head, "hell most of them probably think you know everything. Half the school believes you're a stuck up prima donna, who's too good to hang around anyone, so you're not exactly approachable even without the whole dead parents thing."

"What? But I'm NOT!" Harry protested.

Xander held up his hands, "Man, you don't need to tell me. You're Hermione's friend, she's not a horrible judge of people... Lockhart aside..."

Harry couldn't help but grin a little at that mention, but Xander just went on.

"Besides, we've bled on the same dirt as one of my 'great' uncle's would say," Xander said, "but most of the kids in school see you as the Boy Who Lived, remember? And you only hang out with Weasley and Hermione, so you're not exactly the open, friendly sort."

"Ron and Hermione were the only ones who really tried to be my friends." Harry said softly.

"That's not true." Xander said, looking up. "Lots of kids tried, Hell *Draco* tried, if even half of what he said about your first meeting was true. Those two were just the only ones stubborn enough to keep coming back even when you were ignoring them."

"I don't ignore people!"

"No, no I guess you don't." Xander said, a few more puzzle pieces dropping into place. "But you don't act like a normal kid either."

"Oh great. I guess I can't do anything normal then." Harry growled.

"Probably not." Xander said with a smile that brought another growl from Harry. "You really want to be, though?"

"Yes!"

Xander flinched back from the sharp rebuke, then shrugged. "Alright man, don't blow a gasket. Me I wouldn't go back to normal for all the gold in Fort Knox."

"What?" Harry asked, confused.

"I'm a Wizard, Harry. I *love* magic." Xander said earnestly, "it's awesome. I've never studied, or worked so hard in my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I can make things fly with a word and a wave, how could I give that up?"

"I didn't mean I wanted to give up magic," Harry muttered, "I just don't want all this Boy Who Lived crap."

"What's wrong with fame?" Xander asked, shrugging. "Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my parents for it... not even back when they were screaming at each other. But it's not like it's all bad."

"What's good about it?" Harry asked bitterly.

"Gotta be something," Xander smirked, "Lots of people where I come from do anything for it."

"They're mental then."

"Whatever you say then," Xander shrugged, "but the point I was making is that people see how you act, and they think you're stuck up."

"I am not!" Harry snapped again, glaring at Xander.

"Didn't say you were, but that's how people see you." Xander replied. "Look at it from their point, Harry. You're famous, probably rich most of them figure, and you only really talk to a couple people. Oh, and the Quidditch team, but they don't count. What do you expect, anyway? That people will instantly see you for you? Why should they? They have a perfectly good fantasy that pretty much explains it all, don't they?"

Harry scowled at him, "Great. So now I'm a stuck up git, just like Draco."

Xander laughed, "Oh I don't think anyone thinks you're as bad as Draco."

Harry rolled his eyes, "So what do I do?"

"I dunno." Xander shrugged.

Harry stared at him, surprised.

"What? I'm fourteen, man. I don't know crap about being popular," Xander replied, "my entire life is about Magic, my family, and exactly two more friends than you hang out with. Asking me for advice on making friends and influencing people is like asking your pal Ron for lessons in table manners."

Harry choked, remembering Ron stuffing food into his mouth that it was going to vanish on him.

"Seriously, man, we can see him chewing his food from the Slytherin tables," Xander said, "What's up with that anyway? My money says that the Twins kept stealing his food when he was younger and this is his way of making sure he gets to eat."

Harry laughed.

He felt guilty about it, Ron was his best friend, but the truth is... he could easily see the twins doing just that, and it did explain a lot to be honest.

"You are going to have to do something about it, though." Xander said after they both stopped chuckling.

"What? About Ron's eating?"

"No," Xander said, then paused, "Well maybe. I mean you'll have to start acting different if you want to be the Regent for House Black."

"Huh? Why?"

"Cause you're the guy in charge. The family needs you to be the guy people can talk to, come to for help. I mean, what good are you if you only talk to Ron and Hermione?" Xander asked. "Turning on that Boy Who Lived charm wouldn't hurt either."

"I'm not doing that."

"Then you fail, dude." Xander said just as his spell phone went off.

Harry stared at him, uncertain what to say as Xander answered it.

"Hey. Herms? Ok, we're good? Cool. Yeah, we'll be there. Thanks, and thank your mother for me." Xander said into the device. He hung it up and nodded to harry, "We've got our appointment, couple hours, unless you're changing your mind?"

Harry looked down, then shook his head.

"No, I said I'm in. I'm in."

"Cool. Let's go see a girl about a suit."


	74. Chapter 74

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Hermione Granger was not what one would call a 'simple girl' by any stretch of the imagination, nor was she 'normal'. Normal was something she was almost entirely unfamiliar with, though, except for that narrow band of normality that she defined as such.

Born with an eidetic memory, she'd learned to read by the age of four. Granted, her first novel wasn't consumed on her own until she was six, but it was still impressive. Throughout her mid to late childhood, as she defined it, she had few friends other than her impressive collection of books on every subject she could imagine.

They took her to places she had only dreamed existed, until she turned eleven.

That was when the concept of 'normal', even by her standards, ceased to exist. Magic was real. There was a whole separate world out there where Magic ruled over logic. The most bizarre things happened, sometimes for no apparent reason, and sometimes with effect even preceding cause! It was gloriously insane, and though she hated it... she also loved it.

It was perhaps odd, then, for her to realize that nothing she'd seen in the magic world had shocked her half so much as when Xander arrived for his fitting, and his mystery guest was Harry Potter.

"H... Harry?" Hermione blinked, stunned.

"Hey Hermione," Harry waved a little, smiling weakly. "How's your summer been?"

"Harry! What are you doing here?" She blurted, shocked. "I thought you were with your Aunt and Uncle."

Harry nodded, "I was until Xander showed up."

She turned on Xander, eyes narrowing, "How do you know where Harry lives?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Geez Herms, how hard is it to call information and ask where to find Vernon Dursley?"

Hermione paused, the blushed. It was THAT easy?

"Besides, it's not like the Minister didn't sell Harry's address to Malfoy for a campaign donation already anyway." Xander shrugged, looking like he hadn't just dropped a tactical nuke on his two friends.

"WHAT!?" They both exploded.

"Yeah, thought that would get your attention." Xander said, moving his finger around in his ear. "Mrs. Malfoy told me and Sirius a couple weeks ago, it's one reason why Sirius agreed to this little scheme."

"And what little scheme would that be?" Hermione demanded, hands on her hips as she glared at them both.

"The scheme we need to get suits fitted for, if you don't mind?" Xander smirked.

"Right this way, Sirs." An older man said, smoothly interposing himself between Hermione and the two boys. "You may continue your conversation during the fitting if you like."

"Oh, I like alright." Hermione fumed.

Xander just smirked at her as Harry shied away from them both. Xander spared him a glance, "You know, for all the Boy Who Lived hero type stuff that you're famous for, you sure are a wimp sometimes."

"Give me Voldemort over Hermione in that mood any day. I can CURSE Voldemort." Harry shot back, "I won't even be able to get a word in edgewise against her."

"True." Xander conceded, enjoying the red flush Hermione was currently experiencing.

Idly he wondered if it might be possible to ever get Wednesday that worked up, then he shook off the thought. Suicidal he wasn't.

"Oohhh... You... You two..." Hermione was near bursting as she looked between them, like she wanted to hit them, curse them, or worse but couldn't decide who to start with.

"We'll be right here, you know, if you manage to remember how to speak English or anything." Xander said with a smirk as he stood where the tailor motioned him.

Across the room, Dan turned to Emma and whispered, "You think he's going to survive the fitting?"

"Who? Xander or Harry?" She asked, shrugging.

"Harry looks smart enough to duck out of the line of fire. That Xander boy doesn't look smart enough to tie his shoes at the moment."

"Oh hush."

She had to admit, however, that he had a point. At the moment Xander was standing uncomfortably as the tailor was running the tape around his body, occasionally yelping as quietly as possible when the tape passed by somewhere personal.

* * *

Harry took a moment to admire his reflection in the mirror, the new suit being the first muggle clothes he'd ever owned that fit.

Now if only they could find a decent hair tailor, he thought as he tried in vain to get his hair to set down flat.

"Oh Harry," Hermione smiled, walking up to him. "You look great."

"Thanks." He said, scowling at his reflection. "Damn it. Stay down already."

She laughed at him, "You keep trying. I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

Harry nodded, determinedly patting down his hair and not noting that she didn't say what exactly he would get.

Xander stepped out, running his fingers through his own hair as he did, "So, how do I look?"

"Very dashing," Hermione assured him. "Try not to ruin the effect by talking, alright?"

"Oh har, har." He said dryly.

"Now would someone please tell me what, exactly, is going on here?" She demanded, glaring at the duo. "What scheme are you two involved in?"

"Nothing much really," Xander said with a smirk, "Just arranging a Knighthood for Harry so he can take over as Regent Black and begin influencing the Wizarding government through the Wizengamot."

Hermione's jaw dropped as she processed that.

"Merlin, Xander, I think you broke her." Harry muttered.

"Yeah," Xander nodded as he leaned in closer to examine her expression. "Pity, you know. You'd think she'd be tougher after a few years of dealing with me and Wednesday."

Hermione shook herself, gathering some composure, and glared at them both.

"Alright, you..." She pointed at Harry, "Start talking."

"Don't ask me, this is mostly Sirius' idea." Harry admitted. "And the Wizengamot stuff is new to me."

Hermione turned to glare at Xander, who shrugged.

"Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes! You did!" They both growled.

"Sorry. The Black Family has a seat on the Wizened Gamut thing," Xander said casually, "Plus probably a gazillion fingers dug into influencing the other votes. Course, right now, Lucius Malfoy is pulling most of those strings."

"What?"

"What?" Xander rolled his eyes, "You think he arranged a marriage to Narcissa Black just for the name alone? I'm sure I don't know a fraction of what's really going on, but having met the woman and talked with her, I can tell you this much... She lives and breathes politics like we breathe air."

"No bloody wonder why our world is such a mess," Harry grumbled. "Just hand the keys to the castle over to the enemy, why don't you?"

"I'm pretty sure that's what they did." Xander nodded.

"Oh Merlin." Hermione sighed. "And you really think that Harry can change any of this? Harry, you're not quite fourteen yet. Have you talked to the Headmaster?"

"What business is it of his?" Xander asked as he took a seat.

"He's the headmaster." She told him, exasperated.

Xander looked around, confused, "Are we in school now?"

Hermione growled, throwing her hands up, "He's the chief warlock of the Wizengamot then!"

"Yeah, so it'll be his business when Harry shows up to be sworn in, or whatever it is that they do." Xander mused, "Do you suppose it's like one of those fraternity initiations? You know, a bunch of old geezers paddling the new guy?"

Hermione groaned and hid her face in her hand while Harry looked at Xander in a mixture of shock and worry.

"I bet the headmaster swings a mean paddle."

"This is not some stupid college movie, Xander!"

"I don't know, have you seen how the headmaster acts?" Xander went on, "if the rest are anything like him it could be ANYTHING at all."

"He has a point, Hermione," Harry said, now smiling a bit, "But seriously, Xander, I doubt it's anything like that."

"You better hope not." Xander smirked.

"Why?"

"Cause if it is, I'm sneaking into line with the rest."

Hermione groaned again, shaking her head.

* * *

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Hermione said with misgivings later as they talked.

"If Harry waited for good ideas, he'd never do anything."

Both Harry and Hermione shot Xander dirty looks for that, but he just laughed them off.

"Look, Hermione, it's not like it's rushing into a fight to, you know, kill a sixty foot snake or anything." Xander finally countered, "He's just accepting his family legacy. You need to relax."

"I just wish you'd tell someone," Hermione said grumpily. "Honestly, you need advice from an adult."

"I spoke to Sirius." Harry objected.

"An adult who hasn't spent the last thirteen years mostly in a prison cell."

"Actually, I'm honestly having trouble with calling Sirius an adult," Xander said, holding up one hand.

That one earned him another pair of dirty looks, which he again cheerfully ignored.

"You're NOT helping." Harry accused him.

"Was I supposed to be?" Xander looked genuinely confused.

"Yes!" Harry yelled.

"No!" Hermione growled.

"Gah!" Xander stepped back from them, "You two need to relax. Look, Hermione, this is about Harry ok? He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to, and I really don't think that he's in any danger while meeting with the representative of the Queen."

"The Queen?" Harry squeaked.

"Well duh," Xander rolled his eyes, conveniently ignoring that he'd asked the exact same question not a day earlier. "Where did you think Knighthoods came from? The Easter Bunny?"

A silence descended as Harry blushed and Hermione goggled at the idea of Harry possibly meeting the Queen, or even just a direct representative. Xander just checked his watch.

"Whoops. Time to get you back home, Harry. I'll let you know when we're ready to meet the Baron dude." He said, "Keep your spell phone on you."

* * *

Xander loved magic. Here he was, fourteen years old, and he was basically loose in the entire nation of Great Britain. Back home he'd be permitted to run around the neighborhood, maybe, possibly the town. But, LA? Not a chance, he couldn't get there even though it was only a couple hours down the coast.

With the Knight Bus, he could get anywhere in the nation in an insanely short period of time. Xander wondered why he'd never heard of anything like it in the states, there had to be something he supposed.

The bus dropped him off at the stop closest to Malfoy Manor and Xander walked the fairly long way back as he'd been shown by Mrs. Malfoy. There wasn't even a path to the manor, built as it had been by magic and not non-magical construction. The sky was dim when he arrived and made himself known at the wards long enough for the house elf, Sammy, to let him in.

"Thanks," He told her, nodding as he walked up to the manor.

"No needs for thanks, Master Xandy." The elf said, ducking her head and looking embarrassed. "Sammy is just doing her job."

Before he could respond the bizarre little creature had popped away, leaving Xander to reflect on that fact that he had yet to meet a magical sentient that was sane in any fundamental way. Wizards were off their rockers, Goblins were nuts, and House elves were seriously twisted.

It was enough to make him wonder if magic had a really bad effect on a person's ability to think straight.

' Eh. It's worth it,' He thought with a grin as he walked into the manor.

Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy were in the sitting room when walked in, the Mrs. was reading while the Master of the house was working at an ornate hand carved desk. Lucius spared Xander a bit of a sneer, but quickly wiped it away as he rose to his feet.

"Mr. Harris." He said coolly.

"Mr. Malfoy. It's good to meet you under better circumstances." Xander said politely.

Lucius' eyes flickered slightly, but he nodded in return. "And you, Mr. Harris. I do trust, however, that you won't be associating with any more convicted murderers while you're staying here."

"Lucius!" Narcissa snapped.

The irony of that statement was far from lost on Xander, but even he knew that pointing it out wasn't the smartest thing he could do at the moment. He just kept the smile plastered on his face, "I wasn't aware that Sirius Black had been granted a trial, let alone been convicted in one."

"Irrelevant. The courts made their decision, Black's presence was hardly needed." Lucius said with a dismissive gesture.

That surprised Xander, and his face showed it. "A man doesn't have a right to a trial in the Wizarding World?"

Lucius snorted, "Why would he?"

Xander turned sharply to look at Narcissa, but her face confirmed Lucius' statement. Xander blinked a couple times, then rocked back on his proverbial heals.

"Whoa."

"What is it, Alexander?"

Xander shook his head, "Sorry. Just a little stunned is all. Any American citizen has the right to a trial, as does any British citizen. In the non-magical world, at least. I'd assumed that it was the same. I think I need to ask a few questions about what my rights as a Magical are."

Lucius' sneer was back in full force. "Muggle-born."

Xander turned back to him, smile gone. "No Sir. My parents were the product of two pureblood lines, The Harris and Lavelle branch families that moved to the Americas over two hundred years ago. I was, however, raised in non-magical fashion until I turned eleven."

Every word from his mouth was the complete truth, and an impressive fabrication designed to direct anyone who heard it to certain assumptions. Lucius obediently followed along the posted path just as Xander hoped.

"Barbarians." The man said finally, sighing as he took the seat behind his desk again. "Exposing children to such things."

"Perhaps," This time Xander was gritting his teeth, "though it comes in handy by times."

"How so?"

"Non-magical pharmaceutical companies pay me an obscene amount of money for a potions patent I developed just before my second year." Xander said candidly. "Working is something I'll never have to worry about."

Lucius considered, then tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment. Politics were politics, but money was money.

Seeing that the confrontation, sorry... conversation, was over Narcissa smoothly directed Xander over to a chair across from her.

"So, Alex, did you finish what you needed to?" She asked, not looking back at her husband who was now ignoring them as he went over some papers.

Xander nodded, "Yes. We're ready."

Her eyes widened at his use of the word 'we' and she cast him a questioning glance, to which he just nodded. Narcissa nodded in return and settled back comfortably to read her book. He'd gotten more done than she'd expected, which meant he had been able to arrange a fitting on very short notice while still contacting the Potter boy.

Impressive. She'd have to pay a little more attention to this Hermione Granger, if the girl had been able to help him get that done with such speed.

A glance back across at Xander showed that he had broken open his own book and was idly jotting notes as he worked.

Narcissa wondered briefly where Draco was, then realized that she likely didn't want to know and just sighed before turning her attention back to her book.

* * *

The next couple days went by in a blur for Xander.

Thankfully Lucius had elected to ignore him, as had Draco for the moment. Neither Malfoy were in the manor with any consistency as Lucius spent his time in London, apparently 'advising' the Minister, and Draco was off with 'friends'. Xander presumed that mean Goyle and Crabbe, or perhaps Parkinson as those were the only people he knew off hand who actively sought Draco's company.

For himself, Xander found that he had to contact Hermione several more times to arrange the details of their movement through the non-magical world. Getting Harry to the meeting, for example, wasn't going to be as simple as popping by his place and flooing, apparating, or portkeying to their destination. The protections involved didn't allow for that, so they'd have to do things the old fashioned way.

That is to say, the modern upscale way.

Xander arrived at Hermione's two days after his fitting, dressed in his carefully pressed suit. Hermione had insisted on going with them, which surprised Xander and Harry not in the least, so he had made the arrangements to start their little trip at her place.

The limo arrived on time, just as Hermione came down the stairs in a carefully chosen dress that startled Xander to see. The normally mousy girl had gone all out for Harry's day, apparently, and looked truly beautiful in her pale green dress, with her hair immaculately styled.

"Oh my." Dan Granger said, shocked to the core by his daughter's appearance. "You look fantastic, honey."

"Thank you, Daddy." She blushed, ducking her head a bit.

Xander almost panicked, mind racing as he tried to think of what he was supposed to say in this situation. He had no clue. It wasn't a date, there were rules for that (as Mrs. Malfoy insisted on hammering into him), but the work she'd done certainly warranted some kind of comment.

Apparently his moment of panic didn't go unnoticed, however, as Emma moved up beside him and patted him on the back.

"Breath, Xander." She whispered, amused.

Xander took a breath, then shook the feeling off. "You look beautiful, Hermione."

"Thank you, Xander."

"Well, shall we?" Xander asked, nodding to the door.

"Yes, let's."

The trip from the Granger's to Privet Drive was a couple hours, leaving Xander and Hermione a great deal of time to sit uncomfortably as each mostly thought their own thoughts and tried to avoid doing anything that might mess up their appearance.

Before arriving at Privet Drive, however, Xander had the driver stop by one of the designated stops for the Knight Bus and got out as Narcissa Malfoy appeared, decked out similarly to Hermione in an, admittedly more old fashioned, off white gown. He held the door as she stepped in, then sat down himself and the trio were off to pick up their fourth.

"So this is how Muggles travel," Narcissa said idly, looking around. She'd seen cars only from the outside before, it was surprisingly roomy inside, she found.

"Rich ones." Xander smiled, "Who aren't going very far."

Narcissa nodded, then turned her attention to Hermione. "This must be Miss Granger. You are far prettier than my son led me to believe."

Hermione didn't know how to take that. Was it a compliment or not?

"Thank you," She said finally, before muttering, "I think."

Narcissa smiled slightly, "I expected nothing less, my dear. My son has many fine qualities, however for the most part even I have to admit that they are difficult to find under his more abrasive ones."

Hermione just nodded, again not knowing what to say.

The Limo arrived outside Number Four Privet Drive just a few moments later, and Xander waited for the driver to get out and open the door for them this time. The trio stepped out, and the sight of the identical houses all in a row brought a sniff of distaste from Narcissa.

"Absolutely no privacy." She muttered, shaking her head.

The presence of the limo had brought attention from various people all along the drive, and she could see them appearing from the woodwork as they tried to get a closer look without appearing like they were trying to get a closer look. It was all very common. Narcissa lifted her head and followed as Xander led them up to the door and rang the bell.

There was a long silence from inside, then the door opened to show one Harry James Potter, wearing a torn suit and looking more than slightly enraged. Xander flinched as the sensation of ants crawling up his spine began to form and increase.

"Mr. Potter, please calm down." Narcissa said firmly, though she was shocked by the sheer volume of power emanating from the boy. "We do not need a visit from the Ministry Obliviators at the moment."

Harry nodded grimly and took deep breaths. The oppressive presence began to die out as they stepped into the house and saw the Dursleys cowering in the corner of the room.

"What happened?" Xander asked after a long moment.

"My... *family* decided I shouldn't be dressed this well." Harry hissed.

"Indeed." Narcissa eyed the three muggles, but mindfully didn't draw her wand. She had no desire to trip whatever wards were placed on the house, boy, or family. If they were blood wards, than the boy's sheer raw power would make them even more formidable. "As much as I would like to, we can do nothing about them at the moment. Nothing directly, at any rate. Come along, Mr. Potter. You have an appointment with Her Majesty's representative."

"But my suit..." Harry sighed, looking down at the torn fabric.

"Are you not a Wizard, Mr. Potter?" She asked, smiling thinly. "Am I not a witch. We'll deal with it when we're away from here. Come now."

Harry nodded, and the four of them left Privet Drive, and a gaggle of onlookers, behind them.


	75. Chapter 75

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Harry sat uncomfortably beside Hermione, silently looking across at the two people who'd gotten him involved in this, whatever it was.

Xander Harris was a bit of an enigma to him. He knew that Hermione liked the Slytherin, much to Ron's irritation, and the guy seemed decent enough, but there was plenty weird about him just the same. He hung out with that girl who freaked everyone out, which in itself made Xander stand out a bit in Harry's mind. On the flip side, though, he stood by his friends. When Hermione had been petrified, Xander had been right there with He and Ron when they went down after it.

It hadn't been about the fame, or saving Ginny. It had simply been that Hermione was his friend. Harry had to have some respect for someone who thought like that.

Narcissa Malfoy, though, was a total dark horse. What was her game? She had to have one, Harry knew, even Xander admitted that. Harry just wasn't sure he understood it. All of this for a family that was mostly gone?

If it was her pureblood beliefs that drove her, as Xander had suggested, how could Harry trust her? Why would he? Blood purists had led the war that killed his parents after all.

None of it made any sense to him, and that was driving Harry more than a little crazy.

He was shaken from his thoughts when the woman he was watching draw her wand while looking at him.

"That should be far enough from the wards," Narcissa said, eyebrow raising when Potter yanked his wand free from his belt and pointed it at her. "Unless you don't want your suit fixed?"

"Oh." Harry blushed, lowering his wand. "Sorry."

"Think nothing of it," Narcissa said, waving her wand delicately. "With as many enemies as you have I can hardly blame you, particularly giving my family name."

"What spell is that?" Hermione blinked, eyeing Narcissa closely. "That's not a reparo."

"No, I won't' be using one either," Narcissa said, "That's more of a when all else fails sort of spell. Useful, but crude. What I'm doing now is isolating you and Mr. Potter from the Ministry Trace. It would hardly do to have them coming down on us, would it?"

"I didn't know you could do that," Hermione admitted.

Narcissa laughed derisively. "As if the likes my husband would permit the use of any sort of magics that could permanently track any wizard or witch in the country. Within weeks of the invention of the Trace there were countermeasures being bartered around the community. There we go. We're clear."

She then turned her attention to Harry's suit, delicately fixing the damage one piece at a time, using transfiguration magic instead of charms so that the repairs would be permanent. As she worked, Narcissa went on, "The Trace isn't especially accurate anyway, it's really only able to sense specific magics within the range of the person it's been cast on. Most of those are ignored as they generally match accidental magic too closely. It's useless in a magical home, since it can't tell the child's magic from an adult near them."

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened, her face echoing outrage. "That's discrimination!"

"Oh?" Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "You do realize that the laws pertaining to underage magic use are part of the Secrecy Statutes, don't you?"

"Well, yes, but so what?"

"How does Draco using magic in or around our home threaten the statutes in the slightest?" Narcissa asked dryly as she finished Harry's suit. "The statutes exist to protect us from exposure, not to protect you or those around you from carelessness."

"But... that's hardly fair." Hermione frowned, almost pouting.

"That is life, my dear." Narcissa said, leaning back as she slid her wand back under the folds of her dress.

Xander listened, only slightly interested. The rules in the states were a little different, and in Sunnydale even more so. Use of magic in magical areas was permissible for all wand owning ages, so someone living or visiting a magical compound, town, or reserve could use magic to their heart's content. In non-magical areas the use of magic was more heavily enforced, especially on minors.

For himself, however, the rules were different. Magical tracking in Sunnydale was almost nonexistent. The interference from the Hellmouth made it impossible to accurately track all but the largest and most blatant of magical use. Additionally, Sunnydale was considered a dangerous location, and as such the rules for wand use in 'public' were extremely slack in matters of self-defense.

When you added in the strange mind numbing effect of the Hellmouth similar, Xander had been told, to a Notice Me Not Charm, the ministry had decided to exempt the area entirely from the majority of regulations concerning magic use. Only the most blatant and public of spell use would be acted upon unless, of course, the spell use was for illegal purposes.

Still, he could understand both sides of the argument between Hermione and Mrs. Malfoy. It was hardly fair to non-magical born, to be sure, but then again they were the ones who were most likely to violate the statutes, either by accident or by carelessness. While the actual intent might be malicious, the fact was that non-magical born witches and wizards were simply in high risk positions and needed to be watched more closely to preserve the statutes.

Hermione sniffed, irritated, but couldn't think of an appropriate response that wouldn't sound childish. To her eye it was the height of discrimination, and yet even she had a hard time arguing that there would be no risk in one of her neighbors happening to walk by the family room window while she was casting a Leviosa or Accio. She sighed finally, and settled back.

"How long are we isolated from detection?"

A sly smile played along Narcissa's lips, "For the rest of the summer. The Trace will be reapplied when you arrive back at Hogwarts."

"Really?" Harry asked, eyes wide.

"Do be discrete, if you please." Narcissa asked, "and if you do get caught, remember, I had nothing to do with it."

Harry and Hermione nodded in unison as the Limo turned and they all looked out to see a large imposing building approaching.

"The Tower?" Xander asked, surprised.

Narcissa nodded curtly. "Meetings with the Steward of the Magical Realm are normally done here."

"Huh." Xander said in reply as the car slid to a stop. "Magical entrance?"

That earned him a glance of surprise from Narcissa and the other two as well.

"Indeed."

Xander nodded, then moved to get out as the driver held the door open for them. He casually led the group away from the main entrance to the side entrance he and the Addamses had used for Christmas a couple years earlier. Inside they were met by a man in a non-magical suit who greeted them formally, and guided them to the offices of the Steward.

The Steward was a short man, a little on the pudgy side, who looked more than a little surprised when he saw them.

"Ah... A Mrs. Malfoy and company?" He asked, uncertain.

"Indeed." Narcissa inclined her head.

"Very good," He said, smiling slowly but still a little perplexed, "May I compliment you on your muggle costumes? Quite fitting."

"Thank you, however I suppose it's to be expected. These three are muggle raised." Narcissa demurred slightly.

"Ah, yes, that explains it I suppose." The man smiled more genuinely. "I had wondered. You're magical raised, then Ma'am?"

Narcissa nodded.

"Your dress is quite exquisite," The Steward said with a warm smile, "Only slightly outdated by muggle standards, but that actually makes it look even higher class. Only the richest can afford quality of that level and choose to spend it on the elegance of the past."

That brought a confused frown to Narcissa's face as she tried to determine if she had been complimented, or slyly jabbed. She let it pass quickly, however, schooling her features to a neutral smile.

"Yes, well," The Steward turned to the younger ones of the group. "Now, this is about the title of Mage Knight, I believe?"

"It is indeed. Young Mister Potter is the last of his direct line," Narcissa replied, "And we believe he qualifies for his family title."

"We shall see." The Steward said, turning a page. After reading for a short time, almost eliciting a snort from Narcissa over the obvious act, he raised an eyebrow. "A Basilisk, quite a large one too. Impressive, lad. Do you affirm that you did indeed slay the beast, then?"

Harry jerked a little, then nodded. "Uh, yes sir. I had help though. Xander was there, and so was my best mate Ron, and Xander's friend, Wednesday."

"You'd have to be a bit thick to take on something like that alone, lad." The Steward chuckled slightly. "I won't hold having brains to get help against you."

Harry flushed, remembering that he hadn't exactly asked Xander or Wednesday to join him. Not to mention that the help he and Ron had gone for hadn't exactly been the most useful sort.

"Now, do we have a witness?"

Xander nodded, "I was there. Alexander Lavelle Harris."

The Steward nodded, scribbling a note. "And you affirm, under oath, that the statements made here are true?"

That brought Xander up short just as he started to answer in the affirmative. He leaned forward, "Can I see that first?"

"Of course."

Xander accepted the sheet, skimming it quickly, then nodded. "Yeah, this is all true I think. Harry, did you land a spell on that thing?"

Harry shook his head, "No. You did with that bone splitter on its tooth, but I was busy with the Hat until I got the sword."

Xander nodded, "Yeah. This is right."

"Very good." The Steward made a couple more notes. "I believe it was your Grandfather, Mr. Potter, who was the last Mage Knight of the Realm. Been quite some years that the post was unfilled."

"If you please, Sir," Harry held up a hand tentatively. "But I don't understand exactly. What is a Mage Knight? I mean, I can figure some of it, but I don't..."

"Don't know your family history, lad?" The man peered closely at him.

"I was raised by muggle relatives, Sir. I haven't been told anything about my family."

"Harrumph." The Steward sat back, face creased as he frowned. "Most unusual. To answer your question, Mr. Potter, The Mage Knight is a position of responsibility within Her Majesty's Realm. Officially, the position is as Her Majesty's final arbiter on magical affairs."

Hermione squeaked, blinking furiously.

That earned her a smile from the man, "However in truth there is little actual power in the position. The Magical world exists very much separate from the Realm in most things, and the only power left to the Royals are a few traditional elements backed by ancient covenants. This is one of those."

"So it doesn't mean anything?" Xander asked. He hadn't really understood it all, anyway, and was just as curious.

"In the muggle world it has some meaning," The Steward replied. "As a recognized Knight of the Realm, though a very, very, obscure one, the Mage Knight has certain rights, responsibilities, and privileges to his name. In the Magical realm, I believe that the legal rights established by Edward the Elder remain, however most of them have been superseded by magical law."

"So it's just a name?" Hermione asked.

"There's power in names, child." The man smiled slightly, "Certain magical covenants were established along with the position. As a Seneschal of the Magical Realm, the Mage Knight has certain rights and duties that cross realms, so to speak."

"Among other things," He continued, "The right to bear arms. This means little in the Magical realm, as I understand it, except that in your case, Mr. Potter, this also assumes that you have the right to USE your weapons. I believe that a Wizard considers their wand a weapon, among other things?"

Harry's eyes lit up.

He could use magic and the ministry couldn't stop him.

"Now," The Steward went on, "There are certain factors to consider before I recommend that this be pushed forward."

"Like what?" Harry asked, shutting down a little.

"There are duties to the crown involved, responsibilities that cannot be shirked." The Steward said firmly, staring evenly at Harry, "Understand this, Mr. Potter. This is not a game. This is an honor that few people in this nation are afforded."

"What sort of duties, Sir?" Harry asked, suddenly contemplative.

"The Mage Knight is responsible to the Queen for certain matters, Mr. Potter." Narcissa said quietly. "It's long been something of a... combined shame and honor of the Potter family in the Wizarding World."

"Shame?" Harry looked confused.

The Steward glared at Narcissa for a moment, then looked back to Harry. "It is an honor, Mr. Potter."

"Among muggles, it may be that clear cut." Narcissa said with a hint of a smile. "However among Wizards it's a mixed blessing. The position is one of influence, because it was negotiated under statutes devised by Merlin himself. That earns it a certain level of respect as well, however it is closely tied to the Muggle Government."

"So the purebloods think the Knights are traitors," Hermione filled in.

"Some, yes. The extremists like my husband," Narcissa replied. "Most of us see the title as much the same as that or Baron, or Lord, however. Those too were granted through the Crown, though with more autonomy as they are higher in rank."

"So I'd have to do what the Queen says if I accept?" Harry asked, wondering if he was supposed to accept it or turn it down.

"Not precisely," The Steward said, "Though the Crown may, in fact, call on you in a time of emergency. Unless a state of emergency has been declared, however, your time remains your own. Unless, of course, you should choose to also enlist in some other branch of her Majesty's government."

"Huh?" Harry blinked.

"He means that if you join the army or something you'd have to follow their rules as well as the Knighthood rules, Harry." Hermione explained.

"Oh. Well, that makes sense doesn't it?" Harry asked quizzically.

"Not everyone might agree." The Steward said with a smile. "Now, that is actually part of your muggle responsibilities. As the Queen's Arbiter in the Magical World, you are in fact responsible for judgment over those who appeal to the Queen for Justice."

"Which hasn't happened in over five centuries." Narcissa said dryly.

"Granted."

"Also, it behooves you to remember that as Regent of House Black, those duties will fall upon your shoulders as well."

"Mr. Potter will be Lord Black?"

"No, merely the Regent, unless my idiot cousin fails to continue the bloodline," Narcissa answered, lips curling slightly as she thought of Sirius. "If he knows what's good for him he'll find a good woman or five and get started. Otherwise, I'm going back to America and we'll be having words."

Xander and Harry exchanged puzzled glances at Mrs. Malfoy's 'or five' comment, but kept their silence.

"I see. Well, as Regent Black... Lord Black in all but name," The Steward said seriously, "You will have other duties to the Crown, officially."

Narcissa snorted, drying the ire of the man, "Duties that are hardly binding, and haven't been done in centuries or longer."

"Yet they remain on the books nonetheless." The man growled, piercing her with a glare that didn't faze the blond in the slightest.

"Laws that cannot be enforced are no laws at all." Narcissa countered calmly.

"Some people hold honor over power, Mrs. Malfoy." He snapped, deliberately dropping the title of 'Lady'.

"Honor is an affectation of the powerful, Mr. Prewitt." Narcissa replied in kind. "Anyone who tells you otherwise, is trying to keep you in your place, and make you do all the work for them."

The two glared at one another for a long moment, until Harry broke it up.

"Uh... I don't understand. Do I sign this, or not?" He asked plaintively.

Narcissa sighed, "While there are some small duties that the muggle crown can call on, the position does indeed command an elevated level of respect through most of the Wizarding World. Also, it has some magically bound rights and points of influence that all Clan Heads have to follow. So, my advice is yes... accept the position. It will be useful with most of the people you need to deal with."

"Most?" Harry frowned, "What about the rest?"

"Well, Mr. Potter," Narcissa said coldly, "I fully expect that you'll have to kill them."

"What?" Harry yelped, horrified.

"That group has already decided that you're their enemy, after all."

"Harry," Hermione nudged him gently, "She means that the ones who won't have some respect for the position are probably Death Eaters or deep on their side already."

"Oh." Harry blinked, still looking a little pale. "I don't really want to kill anyone."

"I expect that neither did your father, when he was your age." Narcissa sighed, "Time, and people, have a way of eliminating many of our choices."

"She's right about that, lad." Steward Prewitt said with a sigh.

Harry looked to Hermione for advice, just the glance being all it took to communicate the question he was asking.

"I don't know, Harry." Hermione said, biting her lip. "I don't know nearly enough about the magical world to say what effects it would have."

"What about the Muggle world?" Harry asked softly.

"It's an honor," She said, "You have a chance to serve the crown. I... I don't know what else I can say."

Harry nodded, then glanced at Xander.

"Don't look at me, man. I'm just the go between on this." Xander said with a shrug. "The whole Knight thing sounds cool to me, but you know I learned from Gomez Addams a couple years ago that it really is best to check the fine print. What did Sirius say about it when you talked?"

Harry sighed, "He said that my Dad was probably going to apply for it when the war was over, and my Granddad held the position. He thought it was probably a good idea."

"Well, that's three people giving you more or less the same advice." Xander said, "You've got the information too, so make a decision."

Harry nodded, mulling it over for a long moment, then he nodded to the Steward.

"Ok. I want to go ahead."

"Very Good. We'll set a date then."

"What? A date for what?"

"To meet with the Queen, Mr. Potter. Your oath of service must be given to the Crown."

Harry gulped.

* * *

"The Queen? The Queen?" Harry was panicking after they'd left the meeting. "I can't see the Queen! I'm only thirteen!"

"I fail to see what that has to do with anything," Narcissa said, rolling her eyes as they walked back to the limo.

"OhmygodHarry," Hermione rambled, "You're going to meet the Queen, that's incredible."

"It's insane is what it is!"

Xander didn't chime in with his thoughts as the four of them piled into the limo for the drive back to Surrey, he didn't really need to. He didn't have any real clue of just how important that sort of meeting was, though at a guess he was equating it to meeting the President or something. All things considered, he was glad it wasn't him. He wouldn't know what to say to someone like that.

Well, not without risking being shot anyway.

* * *

The drive back to Surrey was uneventful, but at Harry's place things were changed up just slightly as all four of them climbed out of the limo and walked up to the house.

"Ready, Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked softly.

Harry swallowed, but nodded resolutely.

"Alohomora." She said flicking her wand discreetly at the door as she walked, not breaking stride as it popped open in time for her to walk through.

The others followed suit, Narcissa pocketing her wand even as Harry drew his.

"Get OUT!" Vernon reddened, "I will not stand for freaks in this house!"

"Then sit for it, Uncle." Harry said, hitting his uncle with a petrification curse that froze him in mid motion to climb out of his La-Z-Boy chair.

The chair cracked badly when the obese man's weight fell back into it, and Petunia gasped in shock.

"You..." She started, but was cut off.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia. I can use magic." Harry said determinedly. He didn't like playing the bully, didn't enjoy the terror in his uncle's eyes at the moment, but knew that this had to be done.

He couldn't move out, at least not yet. There was no secure place prepared, for one, not even any idea of a place they could begin securing. And Mrs. Malfoy had spoken to him quite frankly on the power of the wards at Privet Drive.

They were such that she didn't want to use magic against his family, was actually afraid to. She'd likewise warned Hermione and Xander to keep their wands in their pockets, as any harmful intent would likely trigger the wards in a potentially nasty way.

Harry, of course, was exempt from them. As were his family.

In that, lay the problem. He was unprotected from his Aunt and her frying pan, his cousin and his gang, and most of all his Uncle and everything that the bigger man could do.

"It stops now, Uncle Vernon." Harry said, forcing his voice to be calm. "I can use magic, and no one can stop me from doing so. Do you see any owls arriving?"

Vernon's eyes flickered wildly.

"Right now, I'm the only Wizard who can do this here." Harry said candidly. "My friends can't cast anything against you..."

That calculating look showed in Vernon's eyes, just as Mrs. Malfoy said it would, and Harry curled his lips in contempt.

"Don't even think about it, Uncle. If you kill me, or even cause me serious harm, the wards protecting you from them will fall. I'm the source of the magic keeping the 'freaks' from coming here in droves."

"And should you kill or harm the Regent of my family House," Narcissa said coldly, "It will be your last act on this Earth, I assure you MOST sincerely. Right now, those wards are the only thing keeping me from causing you pain such as only legends speak of. And do remember, while Sirius was framed for the crimes he was imprisoned for... most of the Black family were guilty as sin. And insignificant pests like you are among out favorite play toys."

"After all," She said airily. "No one misses someone like you when you vanish into thin air... like magic, one might say. Am I clear?"

The fear filled nods gave her answer.

"Very well. It is time to leave. We'll see you soon, Mr. Potter."

"Keep in touch, Harry." Xander waved, letting his jacket swing open as he turned, flashing his wand to the non magicals as he winked in their direction. "And get that suit pressed, I figure the Queen will expect you to look your best, right?"


	76. Chapter 76

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Draco Malfoy glared as his mother arrived home, Alexander Harris in tow. They were both dressed in muggle attire, and his lips curled slightly at that.

"Where have you been, dressed like that?"

His mother turned slowly to look at him, one eyebrow raising as she sneered back at him, "Do you truly dare presume to demand information from me?"

Draco swallowed involuntarily at her cold tone, falling back a step from her. "I... No, Mother. I apologize."

She stared for a long moment, then nodded curtly before walking away.

Draco shook his head in silence for a moment, unable to get his thoughts together. It wasn't often his mother turned her presence on him, but he never wanted to feel it again when it happened.

"Your mom is a scary lady."

"You have no idea." Draco answered the statement before his mind fully engaged, then he glared at Xander. "Where were you anyway?"

"Out." Xander shrugged. "Not my place to tell you, it was her business."

"What do you have to do with my mother's business?" Draco curled his lip up, eyeing the American like he was a piece of dung on the floor.

Xander'd been pinned with worse, and just shrugged it off. "Think about, man. Why would she invite me here, really? It's not to setup a play date between you and me."

Draco snorted, shaking his head as he cracked an unwilling smirk. "You're a twisted fool, Harris."

"So I've been told."

Draco sighed, looking at his fellow Slytherin, "Good God, man. Have you no dignity? What are you wearing?"

"What?" Xander glanced down, "This is what rich and powerful non magicals wear on business, man."

"You're joking."

"Nope. I have a cheap one at home, I used when I had to do some banking last summer, but it didn't fit anymore. This one cost..." Xander frowned, trying to work out the exchange rate. "Probably around a hundred and fifty galleons I guess."

Draco's eyes widened. It wasn't the most expensive outfit he'd heard of, in fact he owned a few that topped it, but they were all far fancier in design and material. "For that? That's ludicrous."

"No, twenty thousand galleons for my trunk is ludicrous," Xander snorted. "This is just pricy. You should get one, you know, they're dead useful for when you have to go into London."

"Me? Dress like a common muggle?"

"Nothing common about this suit, man." Xander smirked, letting his jacket fall open as he slid his hand into his pants pocket. "Anyway, I'm beat. It's been a long friggin day. When's this Quidditch cup thing anyway?"

"Three weeks." Draco answered, smirking at the thought but his eyes noting the wands jammed into Harris' belt, "The Bulgarians are going to wipe the pitch with the Irish. Krum can't be beat."

"Yeah? Cool." Xander shrugged, as he walked past Draco and headed back to his room, "Don't know the teams. You think it'll be a decent game, though?"

Draco considered it, then allowed, "Sure. The Irish have a better team this year, so it'll probably be tighter than it should be."

"Sounds like fun." Xander stretched his neck.

"Hey." Draco stopped him, a hand on Xander's shoulder. "You do know you can't carry two wands like that, right? It's not legal."

"It is for me." Xander said, "Wand Crafter, level one. ICW Cert."

This time Draco's eyes widened more and he turned to look at Xander, "You can't be serious."

"Why not?" Xander shrugged, "It's easy."

"Wand making is a family secret!" Draco hissed.

"Wand Crafting isn't." Xander shrugged, "The basics are easy to learn. The real trick is being any good at it."

Draco was silent for a moment, hand dropping as Xander continued on past. Just as Xander reached the door to his room, Draco spoke up again.

"Are you?"

"What?" Xander paused, looking back.

"Any good at it?"

"Passing fair." Xander said after a moment's contemplation. "I'm no threat to Ollivander, but my wands have a couple edges."

Then he was gone, the door to his room closing, leaving Draco alone to consider the other boy.

* * *

When Lucius arrived home it was late in the evening, he set his cane down by his desk and settled in to his favorite chair to relax a bit. His meetings of the day with his Minister had gone well. The greedy fool was only to eager to accept any properly coached idea that included a generous donation on the back end, and while it would cut into his monthly budget, Lucius suspected that he'd make it back within two more months and be solidly in the black for the deal at the start of a third.

The new legislation would make it more difficult for muggle-borns to own vital businesses within the magical world. That would cut out some of the competition he'd been encountering of late, letting him raise the prices for magical ink and parchment.

That would put the Prophet within his palm by the end of the year.

Lucius smiled, knowing that the beating the old fool had taken in the press the previous year would leave him open to attack. With the Prophet dancing to his command, Albus Dumbledore and his Golden Boy would be in for very hard times soon enough.

He'd also managed to get the Werewolf laws tightened some more, thanks to Lupin raging around the grounds of Hogwarts. Soon even those few of that filthy cadre that had employment would have a difficult time keeping it. That should provide cheap, yet skilled labor to handle the expected upturn in his businesses.

All in all, it was a good few weeks work.

Now, if only he'd managed to get Black killed as well.

The blond man's lips tightened around his teeth as the thoughts of Black's escape caused his stomach to churn again. He'd been so close. How the man had survived so many years in Azkaban, Lucius didn't know, but his death would have put Draco directly into the Black title. The Black money was inconsequential though, thanks to himself and Lestrange, far from insignificant. The Title, however, would have locked his control over the Black proxies at the Wizengamot.

Now that fool was running loose in the states and, if Lucius' sources were correct, had made significant changes to the disposition of the family. Just what changes, he didn't know. The Goblins were keeping that tight to the chests, not even large offers of bribes being able to open their blasted claws.

"Oh well," He sighed, reaching for a decanter of fire whiskey and pouring himself a couple fingers of the amber liquid. "Two out of three isn't bad."

"Two out of three what isn't bad, husband?"

Lucius glanced up, long years of practice keeping him from looking surprised by his wife's unexpected arrival. "Nothing, dear. Just thinking about some political maneuvering I've been working on."

"Ah." Narcissa nodded, stepping over and pouring herself a drink to match his. "A similar day to mine."

"Oh?" Lucius asked with a curious smile. "Something to do with our guest I presume?"

She nodded, taking a sip of the searing liquid. "Yes. An agreement with his family lines will be beneficial."

Lucius nodded, not pressing. He knew that his wife was obsessed with the Black Line, and didn't want to get into that again. She was staying clear of Sirius, so it didn't concern him. Soon the Black line would be ended, one way or another, and then she could focus on the Malfoy name.

He just needed to learn what, precisely, Black had done about the disposition of the Black assets and title. Then he could counter it, and kill Black.

Well, have him killed, of course.

No need for him to go running about the barbaric wilderness of the Americas, there would be plenty willing to do that on his behalf, after all.

"Whatever you think, my dear." He said aloud, toasting her with his glass.

"He's an interesting boy," She said, "He carries a pair of wands, you know."

"Oh?" Lucius raised an eyebrow, thinking he saw an easy way to score some points and earn a debt. "Did he get caught? I suppose I can speak with the Minister."

"No need. He's certified by the ICW as a Crafter. Level one, of course," She shrugged, idly waving her glass, "Yet still."

"Huh." Lucius said thoughtfully, leaning back.

He knew several people who had wrote that exam, and had been informed that it wasn't terribly easy. One had to have good knowledge of magical creatures, the properties of wood, and the interaction of all types of magic with a focus. He had never bothered to write it himself, he didn't need to make use of that thinly disguised loophole the ICW had shoved through. In Britain crafters were rare, the skill buried by the ministry mostly due to that ICW decision.

For a few decades it had been illegal in Britain, Bulgaria, France, most of Europe really, to carry two wands. The ostensible reason was that one wand was easier for Aurors to deal with when it came to investigating a crime. The real reason was that the Ministry had resources available at the time to track wand usage, and wanted to know who was casting what spells at all times.

The Americas chafed at the restrictions when visiting civilized society, however, and managed to ally with a few other nations on the ICW to push through a few loopholes that would be enforced internationally. The European ministries probably would have fought harder, but only a couple decades later effective countermeasures to the Ministry detection scheme had become public and the point was moot.

Still, the Ministry preferred if Wizards had one wand, the one registered as theirs. It made things simpler, after all, if you could be confident that you'd snapped the right one in case of crimes against the state.

It made it easy since Ollivander owned the only legally licensed Wand Shop in Britain and, as far as mudbloods were concerned, the only one at all.

Still, Lucius had to admit that it was mildly impressive, so he said as much to his wife.

"Impressive. When did he write that?"

"This summer." She said, "Apparently he and his friends have been making wands for a year or so."

"There's more to him than the brash imbecile, then." Lucius said contemplatively.

"Indeed, I believe there is."

"Well, good luck in your familial endeavors, my dear."

Narcissa smiled, "And to you in your political ones."

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Dumbledore frowned slightly to himself as he worked through the paperwork that had been piling up in his office. In addition to his normal reams of parchment, detailing the day to day running of the school, and the yearly headache of finding a new Defense Professor, he now had to deal with constant nonsense associated with the tri wizard tournament that was to be held at Hogwarts.

It was a necessary evil, in his mind, bringing back the ancient competition. Voldemort was on the move again, and relations between the nation members of the ICW had fractured even farther than they had been in the darkest days of the last war. From their height, just after Grindlewald's death, relations had plummeted to all-time lows in recent years.

It was a situation that couldn't be permitted to continue, not with Tom's power sure to rise once more. Unfortunately, Fudge seemed bound and determined to destroy everything he could build. The latest legislation in the Wizengamot was just one more example, pushing muggle-born businesses out of the Wizarding World and sometimes entirely out of the country, and making the lives of Werewolves even harder to endure, these were not things calculated to make Britain popular in nations such as France that had actively protected it's non-human magical population against the likes of Grindlewald despite huge risks and equally huge losses of lives and property.

Even the massively pro pureblood, and still dark leaning, nations like Bulgaria had little but contempt for the anti-werewolf laws of Great Britain. In fact, Lycans controlled large portions of Eastern Europe, and even had strong presences in many western European cities such as Paris and Rome.

Politically they had little power, but great influence, and while Lycan packs were often involved in Organized Crime in those nations, they still maintained a level of decorum with the Wizarding public that kept their political ships from being sunk so easily.

The old man sighed, feeling his age. Reports from Remus Lupin had begun coming back to him of what were called underground railroads, for some reason. Networks of people who were sneaking Werewolves out of the country in open defiance of the Ministry's refusal of passage.

He had made a mistake, Albus admitted to himself, when he did not oppose Fudge's election campaign. At the time the man seemed no worse than any other candidate, in fact a great deal better than many. He was corrupt, true, but Albus had long since learned that Corruption was the way of Government. He decided for himself some time ago that so long as they did their jobs, he would ignore the kickbacks and bribes.

Cornelius was no longer doing his job, however. Sometime in the past few years, Lucius Malfoy had moved from minor opposition to the real power behind the throne, and with the beating he'd taken in the press over the Chamber of Secrets, Albus now found that Cornelius no longer listened to him.

So, in an effort to limit the damage the man was causing, he had not opposed the Tri Wizard Tournament as he normally might have. It was a dangerous contest, after all, even with all the concessions he had managed to wring from the others involved.

Dragons, Merfolk, and lets not even think of what would be waiting the contestants in the final trial. Even without the possibility of accidents, it was potentially lethal. And Albus knew well that one could never, ever, discount accidents.

He sighed, but signed off on the final details before pushing the parchment into the 'done' pile.

The next was a note from Mrs. Figg, and Albus turned his full attention on it.

' Let's see, ' He thought as he read it. ' A Limo picked up Harry and returned him a few hours later? What's a limo? '

He got up and walked over to the Floo, grabbing some powder and tossing it in. "Arthur Weasley's Office!"

The fire flashed green, and a moment later he saw Arthur's face appear in the flames.

"Yes, Headmaster?"

"Arthur, I just received a note from Arabella about Harry..."

"Is he alright?" Arthur immediately asked, concerned.

"Fine, fine. She just said that he had been picked up by a limo. I'm not familiar with the term, are you?"

"Limo... limo..." Arthur frowned, thinking. "I do believe that's a kind of muggle motor cart."

"Ah yes, well that explains it. I suppose Harry must have had some appointment or another with the muggles." Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"Sounds like it. Are we still picking him up next week?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes."

"Should we ask him about it then?"

"No, Harry isn't aware of Mrs. Figg and it's safer if fewer people know."

"Alright then. Is there anything else, Headmaster?"

"No, that's all, thank you."

The fire flared again, then died down to its normal cheery reddish orange as Albus turned back to the rest of his paperwork.

* * *

Sunnydale.

Jessica Lavelle nodded politely to Matriarch Lavelle as she sat down across the coffee table from the woman.

"I presume that you have decided?"

"We have." Jessica said, "And we're willing to go with the family's wishes on this matter."

"Excellent."

"We do have some stipulations, however." Jessica said firmly.

The older woman smiled, "I expected you might."

"First, the family has requested this, so the family will support any child born of this agreement." Jessica said quite firmly. "Whether the child has magic or not."

"Agreed. The family will reserve the right to negate the agreement at any time, up until an agreed on child has been conceived, however."

Jessica nodded, "Agreed. We won't be a baby factory for the family, though. We get final say on if we desire another child."

"Of course."'

"We raise the children, they're ours." Jessica was quite firm. She regretted many of her slips with Alexander, and wanted to try and redeem herself in her own eyes.

"Provided they're not mistreated," Lady Lavelle held up a hand, "I'm not suggesting anything, Jessica, just being careful."

Jessica sighed, but nodded, "Yes, of course. Who decides what constitutes mistreatment?"

"Third party? Non-magical social services perhaps?"

"Acceptable, we'll have to agree on an arbiter, in case of disputes."

"Of course. That's standard, Jessica." Lady Lavelle said, a little affronted that Jessica would think she didn't know that.

"Then I think we have an agreement in principal."

"On my word."

"I think we'll have it writing, Lady." Jessica smiled tightly, "Not that I doubt your word, but even you won't live forever."

"Of course."

The Lady Lavelle understood her great, great, grand niece's reticence. The family hadn't treated er as well as it might have, nor had her husband's. Such things were tragic, in their way, but tended to happen no matter how much one might wish otherwise. As the Matriarch of the Family Line, her responsibilities were more to the future than the present.

Young Alexander showed a great deal of promise, not only with magic in general, but as an adept of the mental arts. Granted, it was unlikely that he would ever reach the peaks of the art that his potential allowed, he had started too late for that, but his genes were invaluable to the family if nothing else.

She had been keeping it quiet for the moment, but rumors were already starting to spread about his potential. An Adept of the Lavelle branch would be highly in demand as a husband and father, even if he were an otherwise worthless individual. Since, by all reports, Alexander was far from worthless... The Lady Lavelle found his potential future, in the short term, to be rather amusing indeed.

Which brought her to the second point of her visit to Sunnydale this time around.

"Well, with the agreement in principal settled, why don't we move on to more pleasant things?" She smiled, taking a sip of the coffee served up between them.

"Certainly, my Lady." Jessica nodded.

"I understand that the Lord Black is living in this area," The Lavelle Matriarch probed, less than subtly. With anyone else she might be more circumspect, but Jessica had trained with her when she was younger, more than almost anyone she would see through the subtleties.

Jessica smirked slightly as she sipped at her coffee, "Yes. Sirius is currently living in the area. I'm not sure for how long, though."

"Oh?"

"I expect he'll return to England at the first sign of trouble with his Godson."

"Ah."

That was worrisome. Her research indicated that Black was the only remaining holder of another highly sought after blood trait. The notorious Black Sense. If he were to run back to England, given the current state of affairs within their ministry, it was entirely possible that he'd be killed out of hand.

That would be a tragic waste.

"His cousin, Narcissa Black Malfoy will try and prevent this," Jessica said softly, "someone who wanted to save him from himself might look to her as an ally."

"Indeed?" The Lady Lavelle mused to herself. "I see. And the man himself?"

"Is not interested in saving his own life, merely that of his Godson."

The older woman hummed thoughtfully, "I see."

Young Mr. Potter, than. Another attractive male within this little web Alexander had found himself in. She would have to look into whether the Potter family had any interesting blood traits, but even without them it hardly mattered.

Politically, Mr. Potter was worth his weight in Platinum.

His name was infamous in almost every magical nation on the planet, and according to the best sources she could scrape together, he was of more than average magical strength, though the numbers were distinctly confused. His near antisocial tendencies made it difficult to get a hard read.

With coaching he could be a political power house, regardless of magical potency.

Her grandnephew, however many times removed, seemed to have a rather impressive bit of luck on his side. He seemed to find himself right at the fulcrum of several crossing events, poised to strongly affect the outcome of what was, if she was reading things correctly, history in the making.

Topics shifted to idle conversation as the Lady Lavelle's mind considered how she might position the Lavelle clans to best benefit from this strange conjunction of events.


	77. Chapter 77

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Harry James Potter didn't look at his 'family', who quite studiously didn't look at him, as he headed out into the yard to finish his chores. The interior chores had all been completed by magic, partly because Harry didn't want to do them by hand, but mostly as the latest example that he could do a great deal to them if they tried to screw with him again.

The list of things to do outside, though, he'd do by hand. He enjoyed gardening anyway, and took a measure of pride in the fact that 'Petunia' won so many awards for her work on the lawn and garden. Doing that by magic would feel like cheating.

As he weeded, dug, pulled, and trimmed, Harry thought about the recent changes in his life. Xander had brought on more positive change in his experience than anything or anyone short of Hagrid himself when the half giant had come and rescued him just over three years previously. Harry talked to Hermione and Sirius every night now, getting more details from the latter, and making plans with the former.

Unfortunately, the thing he really needed information on, even Sirius only had partial knowledge of. The Mage Knight, a position of power and responsibility under the Queen, was something of a mystery. He had the overall idea of what it meant, but Harry was old enough and had been screwed over enough, to recognize that the devil was in the details.

Surprisingly, Hermione had found information on the Mage Knight in the muggle libraries. The position was official, known to exist, and within the non-magical world she had been able to give him a list of all his duties and responsibilities. It was on the flip side of the coin that they run into trouble.

Where did one look up information in the Magical world when one didn't have access to Hogwarts library, after all?

Sirius had suggested that Harry get to Gringotts, but to do that would require a trip into London, and through Diagon. Once there he could get into his vaults, not just the trust vault (Sirius had told him that his parents had more than one, much to his shock), and probably gain access to his family books.

Harry's hand clenched around a particularly tough weed, blood flowing from where its spines perforated his skin, and he yanked at it angrily. Why hadn't anyone TOLD him about those? He'd have given anything, ANYTHING, to be able to connect with his family in that way.

He sighed, throwing the weed into the pile, and clenched his hand reflexively. Hagrid probably didn't know, or just thought he knew despite all evidence to the contrary. Harry loved his friend dearly, but knew that Hagrid was a simple soul. Why hadn't Dumbledore said something?

But then, that wasn't really fair either, Harry supposed. It was hardly Dumbledore's job to look after him, after all. It was all just one more joke played on Harry James Potter by the world. One more in a long line.

So, he had to get to Diagon, and into Gringotts.

Now, the remaining question was, how?

* * *

Xander settled back, sitting on the grass at the peak of a hill that overlooked Malfoy Manor. One thing he couldn't hold against the Malfoy's was there choice of a place to live. The view was intense, overlooking a large lake with rolling hills beyond. He let his muscles relax as he enjoyed the view, grateful of the time to relax.

It was like he finally got some vacation time, and only had to come back to England to get it. Oh, he was still doing his morning routine, which was fairly intense he supposed. Compared to what he had been up to for the first month of his time, home, however it was just a maintaining routing to keep him from sliding back any.

He'd need to get some practice in for wand work, but at the moment it wasn't going to be easy to do. Without a partner to spar against the benefits would be minimal. He could work on his draw time, and aim, but dueling was a living activity. It changed with every breath, with every heartbeat.

It hadn't been until he met Chayton that Xander appreciated just how very different a culture he'd entered. Before that, his time with his Uncle had been more about fun and what was cool. Learning to hold a knife, how to block a blow, these were fun things that he'd never use. Chayton hammered that right out of him in a hurry.

The Magical World was an armed society, one in which the Code Duello still existed in most places. Most non-magical born didn't learn that fully until they were outside of school, navigating a culture they were only peripherally familiar with. Learning to fight wasn't something American children did, as a rule, in the non-magical world.

The Magical world, however, lived by an older code.

Chayton had likened it to the American Wild West, and the Europeans he compared to the early Victorian age. Magical children in both societies were trained to duel from fairly early ages, at least ones of certain social standing.

Certainly Draco had been, Xander knew. Wednesday also seemed to know more about fighting than most people he could imagine. He wasn't sure about the other children he knew, except to say that Hermione certainly hadn't been, and oddly enough Harry didn't seem to have any training either. He didn't think Ron Weasley did either, but honestly Xander didn't know the boy well enough. Ron was also from a very poor family, so probably fell under the class distinction that marked who was trained by default and who wasn't.

In rare moments of distinction, of clarity of thought, Xander had to admit that it all felt dangerously like a game to him.

Spells were clean, easy, and could be reversed for the most part.

That was a way of thought that Chayton had tried to hammer out of him, but had only succeeded in opening them up just a crack to thoughts of a more serious nature. Enough that Xander knew on one level that his trainer had been right, but not enough to really change how Xander felt about it deep down.

Chayton had, of course, ferreted that little bit of information out of his skull in record time.

Xander had been surprised when the older man just grunted and said that was to be expected before moving on. When he'd pressed him on it, Chayton had told him that only when and if he'd blooded himself on a real battlefield would he be rid of childish thoughts.

That kind of chilled him, Xander could admit, and it kept sneaking back in and chilling him again during odd times like this as he looked down at Malfoy Manor and the lake beyond.

It took the soft chime of his Spell Phone to break the cycle of thought and shake him from his reverie. Xander rolled over and pulled the phone from his pocket, flipping it open in what he called 'kirk mode'.

"Yo." He said into the device, "You got Xander."

"Xander, it's Harry."

Harry's voice sounded clearly through the device despite the fact that Xander wasn't holding it to his ear.

"Hey man," Xander responded, "What's up?"

"I think I need to get to Diagon Alley, but I'm not sure how from here." Harry confessed after a moment's hesitation.

"You ever use the knight bus?" Xander asked.

"I kind of thought that was for emergencies."

"Well, it is if you don't use one of the approved stops." Xander filled in what Mrs. Malfoy had told him. "When you flag them down randomly they have to use all sorts of charms and stuff to stay hidden. Go to one of the bus stops and you can get a ride from there."

"Where's the closest one, do you know?"

"Yeah it's..." Xander paused, thinking about it, "You know what... I'll come down and meet you, I've got nothing to do anyway."

"O... ok, thanks."

"No problem," Xander said, smirking suddenly. "Harris out."

"Huh?" Harry had time to say just before Xander flipped the Spell Phone shut.

Xander laughed all the way back down to the manor. He really got too much of a kick out of his jokes, even in his own opinion.

* * *

Harry hadn't been waiting for more than a half hour when Xander came walking up Privet Drive, dressed in jeans and a light denim sport jacket that Harry expected concealed his wands.

"Hey man," Xander said as he stopped by the roses Harry was just making some minor trimming adjustments to. "You ready?"

"Yeah," Harry said, putting his tools into a bag, "Just making some improvements while I waited. I'll drop this inside and be with you in a second."

"Cool." Xander said, then waited for Harry to get back.

It only took a few seconds, and Harry jogged back from the house, joining Xander as they started to walk back the way Xander had come.

"The 'rents still giving you trouble?" Xander asked as they moved.

"Huh?"

"'Rents, family, parents, whatever."

"The Dursleys are NOT my parents." Harry growled.

"Relax, man." Xander held up his hands, "It's just slang. Whatever they are, are they still giving you trouble?"

"Not like before, now it's mostly the silent treatment," Harry said after a moment of grudging silence. "Which I can happily live with."

"Cool." Xander nodded, "so what are we going to Diagon for anyway?"

"I want to see if my parents left anything in their vaults." Harry admitted, "or maybe if there's something about my family, and this whole Mage Knight business."

Xander nodded, it made sense. He'd be curious as hell too, to be honest. "You think they did?"

"Sirius thinks it's possible, but he's not sure." Harry said, "A lot of the family stuff could be in Potter Keep."

"Keep? Like, as in Castle?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. Though, I guess it's literally a castle. Some old fortress used in one war or another. Sirius said that my Mum hated the place, drafty she claimed. I guess Sirius and my Dad thought she was barmy, but they didn't fight it too hard. Well, Dad didn't anyway."

Xander chuckled, "Yeah, like you'd fight Hermione if she had herself set on something."

Harry flushed, "I... Me and Hermione... we aren't..."

"I'm not saying you are," Xander chuckled, "But if you couldn't face her down, what chance would your dad have with your Mom?"

"I guess." Harry said, suddenly a little glum. "I can't help but wonder if maybe they'd still be here if they had stayed in the Keep, though. I mean, it's a fortress, right?"

Xander shrugged, "I don't know, but a fortress is designed to keep out an army, Harry. Not one man."

"Yeah, I guess."

They had arrived at the bus stop, and Xander led Harry into the warded section and pressed his wand into a runic symbol to summon the bus.

"It'll be along on its next pass through Surrey." He said by way of explanation.

Harry nodded, impressed. "They should have pamphlets or something to explain this to kids who weren't raised in the Magical World."

"I assumed they did." Xander shrugged.

"I wasn't given any." Harry replied, "I wonder if Hermione was?"

"Wouldn't she have told you?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Not if she thought I already knew. I don't know if you noticed, but Hermione rarely goes on about stuff everyone knows."

"She does like proving just how much she can read, doesn't she?" Xander asked with a grin.

"To everyone in earshot." Harry grinned back.

"Over, and over, and over again." Xander laughed.

The two looked at each other, burst out laughing, and were almost bowled over in shock when the Knight Bus arrived with a bang.

As they got themselves composed again, Harry and Xander looked at each other for a brief moment, then grinned and climbed into the bus.

"She must never hear us talk like that." Harry said.

"Do I look suicidal to you?"

* * *

Diagon Alley was just as Harry remembered it, and he basked in the feeling of being back even as he kept himself hidden behind Xander, so as to avoid any boy who lived mobbings.

"I always feel cramped coming through here," Xander said as they walked, glancing around.

"Huh? Why? This is awesome." Harry grinned, "It's Diagon Alley."

"Most places in Europe feel cramped to me, so far anyway," Xander confessed. "Streets are bloody narrow, you know?"

Harry shrugged, he guessed they were narrow compared to Privet Drive, but he'd seen it just as narrow around London once or twice.

"Hogwarts is more open, but Hogsmeade is almost as bad. And you don't want to get me started on Witch's Alley in Toledo." Xander complained as they moved toward Gringotts. "Back home, Three Angels is like a national park compared to these places. I mean that literally, I think they actually have a small national park inside Three Angels."

"Three Angels?" Harry asked, curious about any other magical places.

"It's the Magical District in Los Angeles," Xander explained, "They warded off a few city blocks, then used expansion charms on the whole place. I guess it's actually several times larger than LA inside, but I haven't been able to really explore it yet."

"Wicked."

"Yeah, what I've seen of it is pretty cool." Xander smirked, "Wills, my best bud back home, she was SO put out to find that they had a Starbucks there."

Harry blinked furiously, "A muggle coffee shop, right? In a Wizarding area?"

"Money is money, Harry." Xander shrugged, "Hell I'm rich cause my uncle knew how to market a potion I made through non-magical channels. There's really a lot of crossover, if you know where to look."

"I didn't know that. I thought they were completely separate," Harry admitted, surprised.

"It looks like that here," Xander admitted in return, "So I can see why you think that way. But we live so close together that it's impossible to be perfectly separated. Especially with non-magical born witches and wizards coming in, and low magicals going out."

"Why?"

"Well, besides the whole culture thing, there's an exchange rate between magical and non-magical currency." Xander said, remembering one of his discussions with Gomez. "If the money can move back and forth, the people follow."

"Oh."

"I don't really understand it all, but my trainer back home was telling me about it a bit cause he was considered for recruitment to the Secret Service a while back."

"Your trainer was a spy?"

"Not that kind of secret service," Xander corrected, "The United States Secret Service has a magical branch."

"Oh, the guys who protect your President, right?" Harry had seen some movies in his day, mostly at school, but sometimes peeking over Dudley's shoulder.

"Yeah, but they don't just do that." Xander said, "They're the money guys. They track counterfeiters, and the Magical division are in charge of keeping wizards from destroying our economies."

"But... how?"

Xander looked over at Harry, wide eyed. Even he'd figured this one out without prompting. "Harry, dude... Mate... think about it. How easily could you rob a non-magical bank? Transfigure garbage into hundred dollar bills? Hell, did you know that Nicholas Flamel is a wanted man in the Americas?"

Harry blinked, "Really? I thought he was a good guy."

"He and the Secret Service guys had a difference of opinion over whether his making Gold from Lead was a threat to the American Economy." Xander said dryly. "They take that crap real serious back home, I guess. My trainer, Chayton, he turned them down because he doesn't like how they do things..."

The duo was walking into Gringotts by that point, but Harry was more interested in what Xander was saying. "Why?"

"They don't give quarter when dealing with magical fraud against non-magical money," Xander said, "Chayton told me that, once, they destroyed an entire block of a city to send a message to this Organized Crime Syndicate that was transfiguring perfect hundred dollar bills. There were a lot of people in there that didn't know anything about magic or the magical laws involved, and probably more than a few who didn't have anything to do with the crime."

"That's horrible." Harry said in shock.

Xander nodded, "Yeah. But the other side of the argument is that one wizard, left unchecked, could tank an entire country's economy, destroy millions of lives... without hardly trying. And if that happens, the Magical economy will follow in a heartbeat. That's why Chayton told me, you don't fuck with the Money Guys."

Harry had paled a little thinking about it, but couldn't really grasp that any situation could be that serious as to warrant that kind of response. "Still seems wrong."

"I'm not arguing," Xander shrugged, "But I guess every country has a group like that. Here in Britain, I was told it was a group called The Unspeakables."

"Wow." Harry shook his head, "That's just... wow."

"Yeah." Xander said, then nodded ahead of them, "Well we're here. You're up, mate."

Harry nodded, walking up to the counter.

"Key." The Goblin growled.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I don't have it. Is there any way to show who I am without it?"

The Goblin snorted, gesturing to one side. "Wait there, I'll send for an account identity team."

"Thank you, Sir."

The Goblin sneered at him and promptly ignored him as Harry and Xander shifted to one side.

"You may want to lose the Sirs, Please, and thank you." Xander suggested.

"I don't want to be impolite."

"Respect is earned." Xander said, remembering what Gomez had told him a while back. "Goblins have no respect for you, or anyone else, until you earn it. Look around, does it look like they respect politeness?"

Harry had to admit that maybe Xander had a point. He had yet to see, or imagine, a polite Goblin. All of the ones he was seeing were sneering, insulting, and generally taking any opportunity they could to make the humans around them look, feel, or somehow BE foolish.

Still, it didn't feel right to be sneering back. He didn't even do that to Malfoy.

"But I don't want to act like Malfoy or someone," Harry said finally, "I mean I really don't want to."

Xander shrugged, maybe Harry was right. He didn't know much about the Goblins himself, just what Gomez had told him, but the Addams Patriarch certainly hadn't softened any of his words when dealing with them.

"Up to you, I guess." Xander said finally.

Harry nodded, trying to figure out what he should do.

He was still thinking about it when the two Goblin team approached them from one of the corridors that led to the back of the Bank.

"You the one who wants an identity check?" The older looking one asked gruffly.

"That's correct," Harry replied, nodding as politely as he could while trying not to sound like a suck up. It was the best compromise he could think of that might suit both requirements he seemed to have been saddled with.

"This way."

"Can my friend come to?" Harry asked, nodding to Xander.

"Your account, your affairs."

Xander glanced at Harry who nodded, and the two of them followed the two Goblins into the back. They were led into a room with a large ornate desk, upon which rested a single feather quill and one sheet of parchment.

"Identity checks require blood." The Goblin said gruffly, "You don't like it, get out and go get your key."

Xander and Harry glanced at each other, but Xander only shrugged in response to the question in Harry's eyes.

Harry took a breath and nodded, "Alright."

"Sign your name on the line, then."

Harry frowned, puzzled, but nodded and picked up the quill. When he touched the nib to parchment a feeling of metal digging into his skin surprised him into jerking his hand up.

"Ow!" he blurted.

"Never used a blood quill before, boy?" The Goblin asked, his tone a little less harsh. "There's no getting around it. Just grit your teeth and sign your name, doesn't feel much worse than scratching yourself with a knife tip."

Harry looked at him, incredulous for a moment, but could detect no subterfuge in the Goblin's features. That may not mean much, he supposed, since they were so foreign as to be difficult to read at all, but he just nodded and did as he was told.

A few sweeps of the quill later, Harry was nursing a bloody scratch on his hand and the Goblin was filing the identity parchment in a large collapsible folder he had produced from somewhere.

A moment later a glow from the folder made him nod.

"All seems in order. Do you want your old key destroyed?"

"What? No!" Harry blurted.

"Oh? Where is it then?"

"Umm..." Harry had to think, "I guess Headmaster Dumbledore has it, or Molly Weasley. He asked me to give it to her so she could do my shopping."

Harry smiled a little weakly, "I'm not supposed to run around Diagon Alley alone."

"Likely wise advice, Mr. Potter. Even so, it is a good idea to always have your key. I can provide a duplicate, if you wish, but it will be charged to your account."

Harry was about to nod, but Xander broke in first.

"How much?" Xander asked, remembering the 'fee' the goblins had tried to charge him his first visit to a Goblin bank.

The old goblin smiled thinly, "The fee is mandated by Gringotts agreement with the Ministry, and is currently at two galleons."

Xander personally thought that sounded a little steep, but it wasn't obscene either. He just shrugged when Harry looked at him.

"Yes please, I'd like a copy." Harry said quietly.

"Very well. That will be just a few minutes. Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"I need to see my vaults," Harry said.

"I'll have an escort arranged as soon as you have your key."

"Thank you, I think that's everything."

"Very good, Mr. Potter. I hope your business with Gringotts will be profitable."

"For us both," Harry said with a slight smile.

The Goblin looked at him in surprise for a moment, then nodded curtly and left.


	78. Chapter 78

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The trip down to the vaults took shockingly little time and left Xander whooping in excitement from the ride.

"Man! Disney has nothing on that!" He grinned, slapping Harry's shoulder as they jumped off the cart. "Awesome."

"I know, I love this place." Harry admitted with a grin, "I could visit every day if it weren't for being stuck at the Dursleys."

Xander nodded, "Tell me about it. Hoo man, that was cool."

The Goblin who had been their guide watched them bemusedly for a moment before interjecting, "Your family vault is here. Please remember, you may not take any money from this vault. Family artifacts, such as books, pictures, and the like are acceptable however."

"Thank you, Griphook." Harry said, stepping closer to the vault. "Same as last time?"

The Goblin nodded, "Yes, indeed."

Harry nodded and reached out to the vault, feeling the tingle he now knew to be magic touching him in turn. With his key in hand the vault magic recognized him and the doors obligingly snapped as the locks popped, and then swung slowly open on huge wrought iron hinges. Harry swallowed as the size of the new vault was revealed.

"It's huge."

"Merely a mid-sized vault, Mr. Potter." Griphook offered from behind him, "Suitable to your family needs, but there are larger ones."

"Amazing." Harry said with an awed smile.

He slowly stepped in, looking around, then happened to glance back. "Do you want to come in, Xander?"

"Only if it's ok with you, man." Xander said, looking around from where he stood. "This is a big thing for you."

"Yeah, it is." Harry nodded, "But please, come on in. I'm glad I've got... a friend here."

Xander nodded and stepped in. To be honest he wasn't sure when he had started thinking of Harry as a friend, instead of as Hermione's friend, but it had begun sometime between their time in the Chamber of Secrets and this moment. Like Robert had told him, bleeding on the same ground as someone, it had a way of forging bonds.

Inside the vault was packed to the proverbial rafters with everything and anything Xander could imagine. He looked around quizzically, "What is all this?"

"According to the ledger," Griphook offered from where he was standing by the door, "The last deposit here was made by Albus Dumbledore shortly after Mr. Potter's parents were killed. I would imagine that these are the items that remained in their home after the attack."

Harry paused by a box of plush toys, including a familiar golden ball with two floppy wings. He laughed, tossing it up in the air, "Born to be a seeker."

"If you say so, mate." Xander chuckled, shaking his head as he checked out some of the stuff. There wasn't much of interest to him, but then of course it wasn't his family. The Potter coat of arms was on some of it, and also on a large plaque on the wall.

"In Munis, Decus." He said, reading the first line. "In Duty... Glory? Honor?"

"What's that?" Harry asked, looking over.

"Potter Coat of Arms," Xander said, "Three lines in Latin. In Munis, Decus. In Decus, Vitae. In Vitae, Gaudi."

"My latin is pretty rough," Harry said, embarrassed. "Kinda stupid, huh? What with all the spells we have to learn."

"Most spells are latin-ish sounding," Xander shrugged, "but if you want to read the old books in here, you'd better learn."

"Do you know what it means?"

Xander frowned, puzzling it out, "In Duty, Honor. In Honor, Life. And in Life, Joy."

Harry looked puzzled, "Sounds nice, I think."

"Daphne told me that Potters were a service family," Xander said.

"We're servants?" Harry looked somewhat caught between disappointment and curiosity. He'd spent his life as the indentured servant of the Dursleys, more of the same wasn't what he wanted in a family legacy.

"In a manner of speaking," Xander said, "A Service family is a family with a tradition of service."

Xander smirked at the dark look Harry shot him, "Sorry. I mean a family of cops, or soldiers, or in your case Knights and Aurors."

"Oh." Harry blinked. That didn't sound so bad. Then he blinked as Xander's words caught up to him, "Daphne told you about my family? Greengrass?"

"Yeah, she knows a lot about you inbred... ahem, sorry, pureblood folk." Xander grinned.

"Watch it, you. Even I know enough about America to make redneck jokes," Harry smirked back.

Xander laughed, but nodded, "Fair enough. Anyway, yeah, it looks like she was right. A motto like that is the sort of thing you see in families that take service seriously."

Harry nodded, thinking about how his family would have acquired a motto like that as he looked at the coat of arms. It was an image of silver armor flanked by flowing red, with a golden hippocampus astride it. An unusual combination, he thought, but then what did he know, really? His fingers brushed it as he memorized the design, trying to connect to it and to his lost family.

"Got some books over here," Xander said, "Looks pretty new, though. Nothing about the Mage Knight business."

Harry shook himself and looked over, "Ok, thanks."

He was moving to check out a large wardrobe when Xander let out a loud whistle.

"What?" He asked, turning around.

"Looks like we don't have to get you a blank journal, dude." Xander said, holding up a leather bound book. "One original edition of the Coven Grimoire, right here."

Harry moved over quickly, taking the book with a reverence. "My mum wrote this?"

"She helped." Xander said softly. "She left an imprint in it too, I mean... it's not like actually talking to her or anything, but..."

Harry nodded, swallowing hard. "I understand."

He clutched the book to him as they searched the rest of the vault as quickly as they could, but came up empty on any books much older than fifty years ago. Certainly there was nothing present on the Mage Knight.

Harry sighed, "I guess we should go."

Xander nodded, "Alright."

The two headed out, walking past Griphook who silently watched them before he closed and sealed the vault. The ride up was slower, the two teens silent as they considered their respective pasts and futures. Harry clutched the grimoire to his chest the whole way.

* * *

Some quick shopping was furtively done in the Alley, then Xander rode the bus with Harry to the Surrey Stop where Harry got off, then Xander continued on until it reached Garth Calyn in Wales, where the Malfoy Manor was located.

Narcissa was alone in the house when he got back, and she just looked up curiously when he sat down. "Did things go well?"

"Yeah." Xander nodded.

And they had, he decided. It had been an emotional day, even for him as a bystander, but he thought that things had gone pretty well.

"Good." Narcissa replied, "We'll be going to Paris in the morning."

Xander nodded, remembering that. "Dress robes, right?"

"Correct."

"Will Mr. Malfoy be joining us?" Xander asked. He didn't exactly dislike the man, but his presence made him uncomfortable.

"No. Clothes shopping for others is beneath my husband," Narcissa smiled slightly, "For himself, well that's another story."

Xander rolled his eyes, thinking of the fancy robes Lucius Malfoy preferred. If the guy didn't have a wife and son, Xander figured he could make so many jokes about it.

He glanced up, a thought striking him, "You know. Harry's going to need dress robes too."

"Of course, I expect that Dumbledore will..." She paused, looking at him askance, "Are you serious?"

"No, he's in Sunnydale," Xander smirked.

Narcissa rolled her eyes and shot him a dark look, "Do NOT begin with those infernal jokes. We had to beat them out of Sirius, don't make me do the same to you."

Xander grimaced, "No serious jokes, got it."

"Now, you cannot be seriously considering inviting Harry Potter to leave the country with my Son." Narcissa shook her head, "I'm hardly interested in losing a son, or being thrown in Azkaban for the death of the Boy Who Lived."

"They're not that bad," Xander laughed, "But you're probably right. It was just an idea."

Narcissa nodded, then sighed, "And not a bad one I suppose. Mr. Potter will require decent robes as Regent Black, not whatever they pull off the rack for him. Do you believe he would trust me?"

Xander hesitated. Would Harry trust her? He didn't know, and all he could do was shrug and say as much.

"We can ask, though." He added after a moment.

Narcissa nodded, considering.

"Very well, contact him if you would." She instructed. "If he is interested, we leave early. It will be a long day."

"Alright." Xander said, getting out his Spell Phone.

* * *

"We have not seen this title in a very long time."

"No, your Majesty. The last recorded Mage Knight was Charlus Potter, he was Knighted by your Grandfather..."

"Yes, we do recall." The older woman said softly, remembering when her father had introduced her to the man he called the realm's Mage Knight.

"Uh... Yes, Ma'am." The archivist was confused, since the man in question had been knighted before she was born, but let it go.

"That will be all, thank you John."

"Yes Ma'am." He bowed his head and carefully turned to leave.

The Queen ignored him after acknowledging his exit, her eyes distant as she thought about things that had long been beyond her purview.

"Well, young Mr. Potter," She said as she looked at the file photo that showed a particularly scrawny child digging in flower beds outside a common little suburban home. "Are you your family's son then?"

"We shall see."

* * *

Harry sat in his small room, ignoring the sounds of the TV from below him. Xander's recent call and invitation was, well he wasn't sure what it was. Leave the country with Draco?

Harry liked Xander, and sort of trusted him, but that was really pushing it. Still, Xander had made it clear that it was entirely optional and really didn't have any bearing on anything else, it was just a chance to get some robes from a good tailor.

Kinda weird, Harry thought. Wasn't Madam Malkin's good enough?

He'd told Xander he needed a little while to think about it. Now he was just staring at two objects on his makeshift writing desk.

One was Xander's 'spell phone', a stupidly (yet unfortunately catchy) named device that worked like muggle cell phones apparently. Of course you needed to be a Runes master to use one of the stupid things. It had taken Harry dozens of tries to get the dials right when he wanted to call Hermione or Sirius, frankly it was getting to be embarrassing. He was just glad no one was around to watch him fumble with the stupid thing.

Maybe he could get Xander to put in some kind of speed dial?

Harry frowned curiously, then pulled out one of his charms books. It took a few minutes of flipping through it, but he found what he was looking for. A memory charm would help, he thought, especially if he could figure out how to link it to something.

He found what he was looking for and hesitated a moment before taking out his wand. Time to put Mrs. Malfoy's word to the test, he supposed. He flicked his wand carefully according to the notes on the charm, adding his own twist to the incantation.

"Memorius Hermione." he said softly.

The Spell Phone glowed for a moment, then everything went back to normal. Harry picked it up and checked it all out carefully, then shrugged. One way to know, he decided as he scrambled the dials randomly.

"Hermione." He said into the open phone, smiling in glee as the dials spun wildly around and stopped on Hermione's combination. He tagged the center button and waited.

After a moment a familiar voice came through the speakers, "Yes?"

"Hey Hermione, it's just me. I was playing with the Spell phone and wanted to make sure I hadn't broken it." Harry said, feeling pretty happy with himself.

"What? Harry James Potter!" Hermione growled, "Don't you dare break Xander's gift!"

"I didn't, I just wanted to see if I could get a memory spell to work on it." Harry defended himself, "It does. Now I have a speed dial to your number."

"Really?" Hermione instantly shifted to curious, "Which spell?"

"Memorius." Harry said, "I had to combine it with a command word charm, though. The only problem is I don't think we can put more than one of these on at a time, so it's not really useful."

"Don't worry about that," Hermione said, "Just write down what you're doing, so that we can try and improve it later. Honestly, Harry, how do you think Xander made these in the first place? He didn't come up with them in one shot, you know."

"Ok, ok," Harry chuckled, "Anyway I have to go. I want to read the Grimoire a bit before bed."

"Grim... Xander gave you his book!?"

"No, this one was Mum's copy. We found it in my parent's vault at Gringotts."

"Oh Harry... Ok, well have a good night." Hermione said after a pause. "Call me if you need to talk."

"Thanks." Harry said, feeling a bit at a loss for how to say goodbye, then he remembered Xander and finished with, "Potter out."

Hermione's shriek of outrage startled him so badly he dropped the phone where it snapped shut and cut off the sound. Harry stared at it, wide eyed and fearful.

"What was that about?" He blinked, then jumped again as the phone buzzed quietly. He reached for it, then thought twice. Whatever it was he was going to get yelled at if he answered it. After some thought Harry nudged it under his book bag with one foot and did his best to ignore the buzzing.

* * *

The Grimoire of the Coven was a more advanced piece of magic than its creators truly understood. Made, as it had been, but three brilliant but young witches, and altered by the work of a talented and powerful young wizard, it's magic had always been a little unpredictable even to the four who took part in its creation.

For someone like Harry, who had no knowledge of the book and its creation, it was a marvel to behold. He didn't, however, realize that what he was seeing as just a bit out of the ordinary. To him, it was just magic.

When he entered his name in the book the pages went blank, startling him for a moment.

Did I break it? Harry asked himself, panicking. This book was his only link to his mother, other than 'dear aunt petunia', and the thought of losing it sent a cold chill through his heart. He stared at the blank pages for long moments until they started to show text again.

Harry?

Harry stared, not knowing what he should do. Was it really talking to him?

Harry, is that really you?

He lifted his quill, his hand shaking as it touched the nib to parchment.

W- who are you? Is this Mrs. Malfoy?

There was a long pause, then the text began to flow again in an elegant cursive.

No, Harry. This is your mother. I am... I was, Lilly Evans Potter.

Harry stared at the book for a long moment, frozen in shock. He shook his head. It couldn't be, the last book he'd seen like this was...

Harry? Are you still there?

Harry started, finally moving, and threw the book across the room as he kicked back from the chair and fell to the floor.

"Boy! Cut out that noise!" His Uncle thundered from down the hall.

Harry ignored him, but didn't make any more noise as he huddled in the corner of the room and stared at the book across from him. Tom Riddle's diary had talked just like that, was it something commonly used in the Magical World? He'd been under the impression that Riddle's diary was dark magic.

Did his Mum do the same?

Harry didn't know what to think. He only knew one thing for sure, and that was that he had to find out. And there was only one way to do that.

His hands were shaking when he picked up the spell phone and he almost couldn't remember the pattern for Xander's phone, but he finally got it entered and hit the talk button.

"Xander?" He said into the device when the voice came back. "I'm in. I'll be ready to go in the morning."

* * *

Across the world from where Harry was wrestling with worries over his family and newly minted friends, Sirius Black was wrestling with a problem of a different sort.

"Stupid wrench!" He muttered, barking his knuckles as the offending tool slipped again. "Ow!"

"You're using a standard wrench on a metric nut, Black. Here," Simon Brentsmith said, tossing another wrench over to him.

Simon was one of the four men hired by Mrs. Harris to run the Junkyard Alexander had bought. Sirius caught the wrench and nodded his thanks, then turned back to the shovelhead engine he was working on.

He wished he had his old triumph, or at least a similar model to work on but he'd been told that finding parts for something like that would be tough in California, not to mention expensive. He'd settled for an old Harley frame that had been rusting in the junkyard, set it good as new with a quick reparation charm and some careful transfiguration.

Rust to steel was pretty easy, and simple enough to make permanent as well, so in a few minutes he had a showroom perfect frame to start with. When the four squibs working there had seen how quickly and easily that had been done, they'd spent little time offering him anything he wanted in the yard if he could fix up some old parts for them on the side.

He didn't need the deal, really, but it gave him something to do while waiting for news from England and Harry, and also a reason to hang around Sunnydale.

Who would have thought he'd have taken a liking to a place like the Hellmouth?

Alexander's friend, Willow, reminded him a lot of Lilly back in their early years. All about the rules and the books, scared to death of the world but too damned stubborn to admit it even to herself. Sirius hated to admit it, but he'd taken a liking to the girl, and one some level it felt more natural to deal with her than people his own age.

Partly, he suspected, that was due to having basically lost so many years to Azkaban and it's Dementors. Of course, there was also the fact that the was Padfoot, the Marauder. Growing up was never in his playbook.

So he fixed old parts for the junkyard, helping them widen their profit margins, and occasionally taught a young witch about magic while working on a bike to replace his triumph.

I wonder what happened to that old lovely, anyway? He wondered as he worked. He hoped Hagrid had taken care of it, but realistically he supposed it was more likely a rusted out pile of bolts by now.

The Harley he was working on would be a reasonable replacement, though. Charming an old combustion engine to work on magic was simple enough. The cylinders were designed to contain and harness an explosion, which was simple enough to replicate with some runes and charms. One rune for fire in each of the cylinders, powered by an area absorption charm. It would take a while to charge up in most places, but here the magic was almost as pervasive as Hogwarts.

After that it was just a matter of deciding how to make the flight systems work, since just about everything else followed logically from the muggle design.

Flight, of course, was a different story. Sirius had two basic options for that. First, he could go with the supercharged broomstick charms he had used originally when making his old Triumph. They were a little sluggish compared to racing brooms, but responded practically to the thoughts and desires of the rider. Marvelous bits of magical design, Sirius had always thought.

The second option was one he and James had toyed with in their later years, just before Harry had been born. It was a matter of charming the tires on the bike to 'conjure' their own road surface underneath themselves as they drove. The advantage here was that the bike could be made the accelerate much faster than either it's muggle counterpart or even the fastest broomstick, and the top end was really quite high.

Maneuverability, however, would suffer as the driver would have to physically manhandle the vehicle around in order to get it going where he wanted it to. Not as useful for city driving, but the ability to hit several hundred miles an hour in the open sky was tempting.

He was going to leave it until last, however, as he still had some work to do before it was ready to take any sort of charms.

* * *

While Sirius worked, he was unaware that he had acquired a couple watchers in the distance.

"The Lord Black, reduced to being a Greasemonkey."

"Don't be a child, Amelia. He does that because he chooses to, he enjoys it," The Lady Lavelle said sternly. "And that attitude will get you nothing."

"I am not particularly fond of the Family's desire in this matter, Aunt." The attractive blond said, sniffing disdainfully at the air of the old junkyard.

"Do you wish to turn it down? I can locate another..."

"No." Amelia said, closing her eyes, "No, I will do it. I just am not fond of this. Why can't he act like a proper man of his station."

"Other than the thirteen years in wizarding prison, you mean?"

"Yes. Other than that."

The Lady Lavelle shook her head slightly, wondering again if this was the right choice. She probably should have pushed a little harder for a more reasonable selection to be presented, but Amelia was one of the more promising of the Lavelle daughter's yet single and in the appropriate age.

"Just remember, if you fail, do not mention the family." The Matriarch ordered sternly. "Else I will make you regret it."

"Fail?" Amelia sniffed, amused. "He's a man, isn't he? I hardly think that will be likely."

The Lady Lavelle just sighed as her niece moved away, obviously setting her plans in her mind already.


	79. Chapter 79

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Why are we here, Mother?" Draco asked, whined in Xander's opinion, for the ninth time since they left Malfoy Manor. "We could have portkeyed from home."

"I am aware of how a port key works, Draco." Narcissa said, her voice chilly. "We are meeting someone."

The trio stepped out of Diagon Alley, into the filthy street that covered its entrance from the non-magical side of things. Draco sneered in disgust at the filth under his feet.

"Dirty muggles. This side of the alley is always so filthy."

Xander rolled his eyes, "That's because non magicals can't see through the wards protecting the alley."

"What?" Draco's head jerked up.

"He's right, Draco." Narcissa said, sighing. "The ministry blocked this section of the street with anti-muggle wards. They can't see anything here, so their cleaning people skip by."

"Well why doesn't the ministry clean it, then?"

"Probably because they think it's not their job and the non magicals should do it." Xander snorted.

"That doesn't make any sense." Draco muttered.

"Like anything magical makes sense." Xander muttered back.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Narcissa ignored the byplay, privately thinking that the Ministry likely had a different reason than the simple ineptitude Alexander believed. Why clean this street when real wizards rarely used it? It was for Muggle Borns, after all. By its association, the street was as dirty as those who used it.

As an added bonus, young purebloods like Draco, who knew nothing of the muggle world, had this as their first impression of it.

Idly, she wondered if it was as deliberate as she imagined and, if so, who first came up with the idea? It was a spectacular bit of subtle propaganda that served the dual purpose of alienating muggle parents who came here with their children and walked away with this grime soaked street as fully half their memory of the Magical world.

Why would any come back?

It would have taken a truly brilliant mind to plan it all out, if it were intentional. Narcissa was pondering whether to check the Journals of House Black to see if there was any reference to it within them when a skinny figure in muggle clothing approached.

"Hello."

"Hey Harry."

"Potter. What are you doing here, scarhead?"

"Draco." Narcissa's voice could have cut steel, and all three of the young boys flinched away from her as she unconsciously leached a little of her magic into her tone. "I will not tolerate that level of common gutter talk in public."

Draco blanched even whiter than normal, trying to find a way out of this without looking weak in front of Potter, but finally just grimaced. "Sorry, Mother."

"Apologize to Mr. Potter."

"What!? Mum!"

"Now."

Draco's face screwed up in anger and humiliation as he looked anywhere but at his mother or Potter, until finally he let out an angry sigh. "I extend my most sincere apologies, Mr. Potter."

Harry, for his part, looked caught between satisfied smugness and shock at that turn of events. He was therefore unprepared when Narcissa turned on him.

"Well, Mr. Potter?" She demanded icily.

"Uh... what?" He blinked.

Narcissa let out a long, suffering, sigh. "Raised by those muggles, I suppose I cannot expect you to know anything of value. However, when you are offered an apology from a peer of equitable rank, you should either accept it in the form it was given... or be prepared to engage in a duel of honor."

Xander had to smother a snort at the look on both faces when she dropped that bomb, and sidled up to Harry so he could whisper quick instructions.

"Uh... I accept your apology, Mr. Malfoy." Harry stammered out, "and meant no discourtesy in my hesitation."

"Acceptable." Narcissa pronounced, eyeing Xander before looking back at Harry, "However, by rights you should have addressed Draco by first name. You are Mr. Potter, the eldest male of your house. Lucius is Mr. Malfoy, his Son is Draco."

"Sorry."

"No need, Mr. Potter. Your response was merely more respectful than was required, though you should be careful," She said, "In some circumstances that could be interpreted as a threat against Lucius, or the implication that Draco's father is not fit to lead his house."

Narcissa then stabbed Harry with an intense stare, "And I assure you that, whatever problems exist between you and my husband, he is MOST capable of leading his house."

Harry gulped hard and nodded.

"Very well, are you prepared?" She asked, her tone and manner shifting like the wind.

"Uh. Yes ma'am."

"Good. Everyone step closer, it's time to go."

"Wait!" Draco just blurted, suddenly realizing that running into Harry wasn't some bizarre accident. "He's coming with us?"

"Yes. Mr. Potter is in need of dress robes for the coming year," She said, looking down her nose at her son, eyes daring him to challenge her. "As such, we are going to extend a hand to him in aid. Do you have issue with my decision?"

Draco's face clearly said YES, but his mouth mumbled, "no."

"Good. Step closer and take a hold of this," Narcissa said, holding out a long thin stick. When each had grasped it she uttered the activation word, and the portkey swept them away.

* * *

The Rue De Magie in Paris was perhaps simply named, but its splendor made Diagon Alley look like some back country road in Hicksville by comparison. Xander was shocked by the startling architecture and presence the narrow street offered. Three Angels in LA was immense, like a living world of its own, but the character of this place challenged anything he'd seen.

"Wow." Harry whispered, swallowing.

Draco put on a bored look and gave Harry a haughty glance, "So easily impressed, Potter?"

"I don't know about Harry, but I am." Xander admitted.

The buildings seemed taller than they should be, with graceful gothic designs that were gilded in what seemed to be gold. The light of the morning sun sparkled off the glass and gold as throngs of people moved about their daily lives.

"Careful." Narcissa grasped them all and pulled them aside as a group of people marched past, barely giving them a glance.

"Who was that?" Harry asked, sneaking a glance behind.

"Lycans." Draco sneered. "Disgusting..."

"Draco." Narcissa cut him off.

"Yeah, man." Xander said, a little pale. "If I remember my history right, Paris is their city. Don't pick a fight, please."

"Lycans?" Harry whispered, "Like Professor Lupin?"

"Not quite, but close, yes." Narcissa said as she ushered them along. "Remus is of a somewhat different class, you might say. He hasn't completed a full transformation to Lycan. Some never do."

"Lycans are considered primals more than werewolves," Xander said, remembering his studies. "They held Paris and a few outlying areas against Grindlewald back in the forties, drove his Vampires out. Wizards never got control of the city back, really."

"Very good, Mr. Harris. This way now," Narcissa said as they moved through the crowd. "In reality, there are as many lycanthropes as there are human cultures, so we're not sure if the species is even the same as Remus' is, Mr. Potter."

"Oh."

"Many magical creatures are of a similar vein," She went on as they walked, "There are many different species of Vampire, for example. At least one for every human culture I'm aware of, though not all are of human form. Scholars have spent lifetimes speculating on how and why such things are. Ah, here we are."

They stopped outside of a, relatively, unassuming shop and Narcissa ushered them inside. Once the door closed, she looked up and smiled at the man awaiting them inside.

"Bernard, c'est ci bon du tu voir." She said.

The man bowed slightly from the hip and smiled back, "Welcome to my humble shop, Vanity. It is a pleasure, as always."

Narcissa rolled her eyes slightly at the nickname, but said nothing about it. "The pleasure is mine, Bernard. Where else would I possibly get such clothes as you provide?"

"Nowhere in the world that I am aware, Madam." He returned, then settled on a genial yet serious face. "So, dress robes for the young masters then?"

"Yes, Bernard. You know my son, Draco of course." Narcissa said, nodding to Draco.

"Welcome once more, young Dragon."

Draco smiled slightly, his eyes just barely keeping from rolling as his mother's had. "Hello, Bernard."

"This is Alexander Harris, from the Americas." Narcissa continued, "And Mr. Harry James Potter."

Bernard paused in mid motion, eyes flicking to Harry, then he carefully returned to setting out his tools. "Indeed. It is an honor, to meet you both."

"Thank you sir." Harry said, sounding nervous.

"Hey." Xander just smiled crookedly and leaned on the counter.

"Hmm... Basic black, I believe, for all of them?" Bernard said, sizing them up carefully. "Silver trim for the young dragon, is he still enamored with that Slytherin fellow?"

Draco flushed, but Narcissa just smiled and nodded.

"Yes."

"Well, perhaps a midnight green then, instead." The tailor suggested, "So dark as to be black, except in the right light."

"That sounds perfect."

"As for Mr. Potter..." The tailor considered, "Silver spun Acromantula silk, dyed deepest black. It will glimmer like stars on a clear night in low light, but appear black as the void in daylight or normal room lighting."

"Excellent. Perhaps something golden, as well? Mr. Potter is a Gryffindor."

"Of course. Gold trim, 24 carat?"

"Perfect." She replied, "Mr. Potter will also require full head of house charms."

Bernard's eyebrows jumped up, "Indeed? It will be done. Now, for Alexander?"

Narcissa and the Tailor turned their eye to Xander, who shifted nervously.

"He is a Hogwarts student?"

"Yes, Slytherin."

Bernard leaned in to Narcissa, whispering a question, to which she shook her head slightly. He nodded and leaned back, looking again to Xander.

"Very well. Silver spun Acromantula silk, as with Mr. Potter, but with sterling silver trim." he said, clasping his hands. "Come then, it's time to get your measurements."

* * *

Sirius Black wondered what his godson was doing as he settled into the corner booth of the dark bar, a mug of Guinness in front of him. It had been a long time since he'd been able to relax with a good beer, and after a sip of the brew in front of him he supposed it would be some time more before he had that luxury. Still, the chilled beer was better than he'd had in about 14 years, so it would do.

The work on his new bike was going well, he'd elected to go with the old classic charms for flight. Those would take him several weeks to finish and charge, but he wanted the maneuvering ability rather than raw speed. The rest of the bike's charms would take the better part of an additional month to complete, since many of them were fairly complex to cast.

From notice me not charms to spacial effect charms, the bike would take several dozen forms and variations of common spells in order to properly operate without calling all sorts of attention to it. He'd even have to add wizard specific charms, which were insanely complicated to cast, simply because in nations like Britain the bike was going to be massively illegal or so he'd been informed.

Back in his day the muggle artifact laws hadn't been nearly as strict. Mostly they just applied to muggle *owned* items, specifically to keep idiots from charming some poor muggle's car or teapot or whatever for a gag. Today, he'd been informed that the laws had been expanded to cover pretty much anything in common use in the muggle world.

All in all it was bloody well insane, in Sirius' opinion. He was no expert on Muggles, he'd be the first to admit that, but he did know that muggles had massive manufacturing capability, which Wizards did not. The laws even recognized that fact, Sirius knew. Simple wizarding trunks were muggle manufactured and charmed later, and were somehow exempt from the laws.

The way things were leaning, Sirius thought they were going to destroy the society they were supposed to be protecting. Without access to muggle artifacts they'd have to rely on wizards to manufacture every little thing they needed, or wanted, for their daily lives. That drove the prices up until lower income families couldn't afford the basic comforts that all but the very poorest of muggles took for granted.

The Lord Black in Exile brooded quietly in his beer as his thoughts turned back to home, a home that seemed to be tearing itself apart.

* * *

Amelia watched silently as the object of her attention descended into a darker mood than when he entered, and decided not to approach just then. She did wonder what he was thinking about, however.

Given what she knew about him, she supposed it had to be about his home and family. He was in exile, mostly cut off from the power and influence.

She silently finished her drink and left the dank bar, electing to make her approach another time.

* * *

The whirling of the portkey dropped the three children and their adult minder in the alley outside the Leaky Cauldron. The daylight was fading quickly, and Narcissa turned to Harry when they had all recovered.

"Are you alright to get home from here?"

He nodded, "Yes, thank you. Now that I know how to use the knight bus I can get around alright."

She nodded, "Your final robes will be ready in a few days, they'll be owled to you then."

Harry nodded again, then half smiled, "It'll be interesting to get mail from someone other than my friends."

Narcissa blinked, "Excuse me?"

"I've never got any mail from anyone else before."

Xander and Draco exchanged confused looks before they broke in.

"Wait, you never get any mail?" Draco blinked.

"Just from my friends, and my Hogwarts letter of course." Harry said, then scowled, "And from the ministry last year."

"Harry, man." Xander shook his head, "You're famous. My best friend back in Cali knows your story, and you're telling me you *never* get mail from boy who lived fans?"

Harry grimaced, but shook his head.

"Owl wards?" Draco asked his mother.

"Redirects, obviously." She nodded, "otherwise the news would have broken that he was out of contact. This complicates things slightly."

"You think my mail has been tampered with?"

"Yeah, I'd say so." Xander said dryly. "I'm pretty sure Wills sent you a card last year for your birthday."

"But what's happened to it then?"

"Has to be redirect wards," Narcissa replied, "Which means that it was sent somewhere else. Possibly to be destroyed, probably stored. I would guess that the Headmaster would know where, since only he could have manipulated the blood wards you live under."

"Great." Harry looked put out. "Now I need to find out about that. What do I do about the robes?"

"I'll contact Bernard and have him send them to me," Narcissa offered until she saw Harry's face twitch. "Or perhaps you wouldn't be comfortable with that?"

"No offense, ma'am." Harry said hurriedly. "But..."

"None taken," She assured him. "I can understand, given your previous experiences with my husband and son."

Draco snorted, "I don't know about father, but I'm sure I couldn't resist adding something to them if I had the chance."

Harry and Xander looked at Draco in surprise, then Xander broke out laughing.

"You know, I'd probably charm them with some pranks myself." He admitted.

Harry grimaced a bit, then snorted and grinned, "Yeah I think I'd like another option."

"Owl them to Hermione," Xander suggested, still grinning. "She'd curse anyone who tried to prank you."

Harry nodded, grinning. "That will do, thanks."

"Very well, I'll relay the instructions." Narcissa promised. "Now, you should get along home. There are busy days ahead."

Harry nodded, but didn't move. "I... I have some questions about my Mum's book, ma'am."

Narcissa glanced over at Xander, who nodded.

"He found it in his parents vault."

"I see. Is it important, Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked, acutely aware of the intense curiosity showing on her son's face.

"I... I think so, yes." Harry admitted hesitantly. "It's just, my Mum... she recognized me."

That froze Narcissa in place. That just shouldn't be possible, but it was something she'd noticed herself when watching Lilly and Sirius argue his innocence over the last year.

"I can't explain it, Mr. Potter." She admitted, "but I too have noticed strange effects with the book."

"It's just that, two years ago..."

Xander immediately recognize where Harry was going, "Mold in his shorts book. Yeah, I had the same thought that year."

"Pardon me?" Narcissa's eyebrow rose, even as Draco paled.

"Tom Riddle," Xander explained, "You know, that Dark Lord dude. What's his name again?"

"Voldemort." Harry said dryly.

Both Draco and Narcissa flinched at the name.

"You shouldn't say his name so easily, Mr. Potter," Narcissa said softly.

"Why? It's just a name, right? Being afraid of it just gives him more power."

Narcissa sighed, "Yes that is true today. It wasn't always the case, however. At the height of his power, the Dark Lord had managed to recreate one of the most powerful of spells I've ever seen. Today the ministry calls it Taboo. It affects one word, and only one word within its range. Anyone who says that word basically invites properly charmed individuals to their location, no matter how protected. When someone said his name back then, it was often their final word."

"Oh." Harry blinked, "But... why didn't anyone just say so? It explains a lot about the Wizarding world that made no sense to me before."

"Few people know of it, to be honest, Mr. Potter. The Ministry kept it secret and moved the rune stones to the department of mysteries. The spell is still active, though I don't know if they use the same word now."

"Why leave it active?" Xander blinked.

"So that no one could cast it again. Only one word can be used over its area of effect," Narcissa repeated herself, "So that spell cannot be cast again within all of Great Britain."

"Huh." Harry said thoughtfully. It explained a lot about the people he'd met in the Wizarding world. They weren't cowardly or afraid of a name, they were actively avoiding very real death. Still, that was another issue, this was about the book. "Ok. That's good to know, ma'am. But about the book..."

"The Grimoire uses no dark magics," Narcissa said, frowning. "The imprints left are based on the protean charm, very similar to what was used in magical portraits. I too have seen strange effects in my copy, however, so I understand your concerns."

Harry looked down, realizing that the expert on the book didn't have the answers he needed.

"If it means anything, Harry," Xander said, "The book scared me too, this past year. I was thinking the same thing you are, but you know I've been using it for years and I haven't had any urges to run around siccing huge honking snakes on innocent kids."

Harry glanced over at Xander and smiled hesitantly at the statement. He nodded in thanks, "Alright. I guess I'll have to see what they have to say."

Xander shrugged, while Narcissa frowned thoughtfully.

"I promise you, Mr. Potter, that we used nothing dark or dangerous when we made that book. That said, it is not behaving as it should. I don't know why it is acting the way it is." She said, "So do take care, however I don't believe it to be dangerous."

Harry nodded again. "Thank you, ma'am."

He turned to Xander and Draco, "I'll see you later then, Xan. And goodbye, Draco."

Draco nodded in return as Xander grinned, "Catch you soon, mate."

"Right." Harry grinned as he turned and walked out of the alley.

Narcissa watched him leave for a moment, then nodded to the two boys with her. "Very well then. Let's go home."

Draco nodded thoughtfully, thinking on what he'd heard and trying to piece it all together. He didn't know what his mother's connection to Potter, or Potter's mother was, but it seemed like something he should figure out.


	80. Chapter 80

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander sat up on the hill over the Manor, his guitar in his arms. He tuned it slowly, thinking about what he'd seen over the past few days. He'd never identified himself as a thinker or studier, they weren't part of his self-image, but since he'd learned about magic his old way of thinking was completely out the window.

How could he do any different, though?

Magic was everything he'd ever dreamed about as a kid. As a Wizard he was the closest thing to everything he ever wanted to be that he could possibly be. A Superhero. A Jedi. Everything he'd ever idolized while wasting his youth in the theaters and in front of the tube.

Everyone who knew him was surprised by how he had focused on his school work, how far ahead he worked. His mother and father were quietly stunned, though they thought they were hiding it from him. Willow slipped once in a while too. She was happy he was studying, of course, but now and then she slipped and admitted how shocked she was by his knowledge.

Xander knew that she was a little worried, his Wills had always been insecure and he knew she was worried that she was falling behind him. He was glad that Sirius was willing to tutor her, cause Willow deserved better than to be left behind because her dad was too closed minded to realize that she had more potential than anyone had even begun to realize about her.

For him, though, what else could he do but throw himself into magic like he'd found Nirvana?

Xander started to pluck at the guitar, the tune flowing out was a light and airy sound that brought a smile to his face as he started to gain confidence in his finger motions. It had been a long time since he practiced, and he'd never been all that good to begin with, but while he didn't know music he did know the chords.

"That's an interesting tune."

Xander paused, jolting a little as he noticed Narcissa approach from behind him. "Hey. You gave me a start there."

She shrugged, but didn't apologize as she glanced at his guitar. "I don't believe I've seen an instrument quite like that."

"This? It's just a guitar." Xander frowned, puzzled.

"I'd gathered that much, but it's far larger than most I've seen."

"Just a normal two hundred dollar acoustic guitar," Xander admitted. "Never seen a magical one."

Narcissa nodded, "I think they use compression charms to make them smaller."

"Probably," Xander said, glancing down at the instrument in his hand. "You know, I bet you could make a great sounding guitar with wizarding space charms inside to give you a fuller sound."

"Likely what they do." Narcissa said as she looked out over the manor from where she was standing. "What tune were you playing?"

"No tune, not really." Xander said.

"Seemed like one to me."

"It was a Wingardium charm." He admitted after a moment.

Narcissa looked at him sharply, "Excuse me?"

"The Arithmantic breakdown of a Wingardium," Xander said, "Most spells seem to be in a three meter beat, it applies itself to being played."

"Really? I hadn't known that. Does the magic of the spell break through?"

"I don't think so," Xander admitted after a moment's thought, "But I hadn't thought about it either. I guess it doesn't matter, though. Who needs to cast a spell through a guitar?"

"Might come in useful for compulsion charms," Narcissa mused, "charming a crowd, for example."

Xander looked at her in surprise, "You are one sneaky lady."

"I was a Slytherin, Alexander." She replied with a smile.

He had to give her that, and gave some serious thought to what she was suggesting. Other than the moral implications he could see at least one realistic issue with the concept.

"The guitar makes a poor focus," He said after a moment, "I think... I think you'd have to have a lot of power to make it work. Enough that it would be kind of useless."

"Pity."

"Of course, there's also the possibility of talent." Xander said a moment later.

"Oh?"

"Someone whose magical strengths lie somehow in music or creativity," Xander guessed aloud, "Actually, that might explain why some of the best musicians can affect crowds so powerfully."

"Interesting idea." Narcissa smiled. It had been years since she'd had conversations like this, just over fifteen years to be precise.

"Yeah." Xander said, letting his guitar hang from its strap as he got up and fished out a notebook and ballpoint pen. He quickly jotted down a note before putting the pad away.

Narcissa just looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Just making a note to check the beat of some popular songs," Xander said, "to see if they match the Arithmantic formula of any charms."

"Muggle-borns." Narcissa smiled, then corrected herself, "Or, in your case, Muggle raised."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Lilly was much like you are." Narcissa said, waving her hand airily, "Oh, she was more intelligent... don't take that badly, Lilly was remarkable in that way..."

Xander smiled crookedly, "I know the type."

"Yes, you do don't you?" Narcissa asked rhetorically. "You have a better imagination than she did, however, and a work ethic easily on par with hers... and you are intelligent enough to borrow the genius of others. Those attributes will serve you well."

Xander nodded thoughtfully.

"At any rate, I came up here to tell you that the ceremony has been scheduled." Narcissa said, "Given the seriousness of the situation, we're going tomorrow."

Xander blinked, "That fast?"

"It seems that people on the Muggle side are interested in young Mr. Potter."

Xander nodded slowly, "Well. That's par for the course when we're talking about Harry."

Narcissa spared him a slight smiled, "Perhaps. Let him know, if you please?"

Xander nodded, pulling out his spell phone. "Got it."

"Thank you." She said, turning away. She paused for a moment, "And Alexander?"

"Yeah?" He stopped dialing out the runes and looked up at her.

"Keep practicing, your play shows promise."

* * *

Harry stared at the Grimoire where it sat, closed on his makeshift writing desk. He'd been writing in it so much, so fast, that his hand was cramped and he'd destroyed all the spare nibs he had for his quills.

His mother.

Whatever piece of her was in that book, it was a numbing experience to be able to speak with her in any form. He'd always felt more connected to his father, really. James was the one that everyone had stories about, well everyone who would talk to him about it anyway. He looked like this father, barring his eyes. Basically, everything Harry had was somehow linked to his Potter ancestry and he knew nothing of his Evans side.

To be honest, he hadn't cared to explore it. It reminded him too much of his Aunt.

The piece of his mother in the book knew her family, though, in ways Harry could only envy. It was what she knew beyond that, however, that puzzled and even frightened him.

How could she know about things that happened after she left school?

Oh, her recall of those things wasn't perfect. Not like she could recite events from her school days or before. But sometimes she'd be talking and something new would slip through, seemingly surprising even the echo in the book. Like she was remembering things she'd forgotten, or things she never realized she knew.

It was creepy, sometimes. Like when he was talking to her about her own childhood, and she got distracted part way through, reminiscing about taking care of him after he'd been born. When he confronted her on it, however, the echo seemed as startled and surprised as he was.

Magic sometimes just gave him the creeps.

He was still gnawing on it in his mind when his spell phone whistled softly from where it was resting on his desk. Harry casually flipped it open, "Yeah? Hello?"

"Hey dude." Xander's voice came through. "We're on for tomorrow. You got your armor shined up?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "hard to shine a suit, Xan."

"Hermione might find a way."

Harry mumbled something in response to that.

"What was that?"

"She's not talking to me right now."

"What? Why?" Xander asked, confused.

"I don't know, alright. All I said was 'Potter Out' before hanging this thing up."

Xander snorted, then broke out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Sorry, sorry..." Xander's snickers came back clearly over the spell phone. "I can see why she might be a little miffed, but not talking to you is a little extreme."

"Well..." Harry grimaced, "I might have not answered her call afterwards."

"What? Why?"

"Cause the way she was screaming when I hung up I KNEW she was just calling to yell at me!"

Xander had evidently had enough since for several long minutes all Harry could hear coming through the spell phone was laughter.

"I'm so glad you're enjoying my misery." He said when the sounds finally quieted down.

"Oh hell yeah, this is hilarious." Xander replied, voice obviously strained from laughing. "Would have been less painful to just let her yell at you in the first place, mate."

"I'm starting to realize that, thanks so much."

"Hey, at least it's just Hermione. She's not likely to do more than hex you." Xander said, still snickering.

"Hex me? Isn't that enough!?"

"Hey, I hang around Wednesday Addams." Xander said, "She has ways of... hurting people."

"Right..." Harry said slowly, his voice obviously doubting what Xander was saying.

"You'll learn if you ever spend time around Wednesday." Xander pronounced ominously, "In the meantime, get ready. Tomorrow's another big day."

Harry sighed, but nodded. "Got it."

"Alright. See you then," Xander said, pausing for a moment before coming back. "Harris Out."

The connection went dead as Harry stared at the phone for a long moment, caught between confusion and annoyance.

* * *

The Limo pulled up in front of the house on Privet drive, as it had a few days earlier, but with one difference this time. Two flags fluttered on the hood, flying the royal emblem were what caught the eyes of the looky loos in the community this time. Inside Narcissa, Hermione, and Xander waited as the driver got out and walked around to open the door.

Narcissa stepped lightly out as the door of the house opened and Harry stepped out.

"Mr. Potter." The Driver said, bowing his head as Harry approached.

"Uh, yes. That's me."

"Yes Sir."

"Are you ready, Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked seriously.

Harry nodded, "Yeah I think so."

"Good. Then let us be going." She said, stepping aside to let him in.

Harry nodded, climbing in before Narcissa followed and the driver closed the door behind them. Inside he saw Hermione and Xander and smiled nervously as Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him.

"Uh, Hi Hermione." He said weakly.

"Harry." She replied curtly.

"I, uh, didn't think you'd come."

Hermione sighed, ducking her head, "Just because I'm angry with you doesn't mean I'm not going to show up when you need help."

Harry was quiet for a long moment, then nodded, "Thanks."

Hermione just nodded in return.

"Oh for crying out loud," Xander rolled his eyes, "Herms, you do realize that Harry has never even seen a single episode of Star Trek, right?"

"What?" Hermione looked up, shocked.

"Yeah, kinda blew my mind when I realized it myself." Xander said, shaking his head, "He was just copying me when he said 'Potter out'."

Xander half smirked, "Honestly, though I hate to admit it, I think it's funnier when he does it. I'm going to need a new signing off line, can't let myself be out shined like that."

Hermione wasn't really listening to him as Xander prattled on, and he knew it. He was just talking for the sake of filling the silence while Hermione put things together in her head.

"He's never watched any TV, has he?" She asked slowly, a horrified look on her face.

"That would be my guess," Xander shrugged, "How about it, mate?"

Harry shrugged, "I've seen some, mostly through the crack in the cupboard door and over Dudley's shoulder while he watched stuff in his room. Lately he watches a lot of..."

Harry looked sharply at Hermione and started to blush.

"A lot of wha... Ohhhh..." Hermione blinked, then flushed as well.

"Oh Dude," Xander grimaced, "I've seen your cousin and that's an image of him I really didn't need."

"What on earth are you all speaking of?"

"Uh... well, you see, my cousin likes to watch... umm..." Harry stammered, then took a deep breath, "Adult entertainment."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "He is your age, isn't he? Shouldn't he be giving up children's things?"

"Not that kind of adult." Xander sighed, just wincing as he tried to think of how to explain it. "There HAS to be an equivalent in the Wizarding World, but I don't know what it's called. Harry's saying that his cousin watches a lot of... sex, alright? Porno tapes."

Narcissa frowned quizzically, not because she didn't understand the term, but had never really equated sexual entertainment in the way they were speaking. Certainly it existed in the Wizarding world, but generally speaking it involved live shows of some sort. There was print media as well, with some moving pictures, but the language they were using didn't seem quite fitting with either of those.

"He hires people to put on a display for him?" She finally asked, "I hadn't realized that the Dursleys were quite so wealthy."

Xander, Hermione, and Harry's eyes widened like a shot and they stared at Narcissa in shock.

"No, I'm guessing from your expressions that's not it." Narcissa said, now genuinely curious.

"Ah, well it is sort of." Xander said after an awkward silence. "Non magicals record... uh... plays. Sort of like Wizarding pictures, but a lot longer and with sound."

"How long?"

Xander shrugged, "As long as they want."

"And they use it for this... Adult entertainment?" Narcissa asked disdainfully.

"Well, no," Xander said, glad to be able to shift back on topic, "They use it for everything. Which is my original point. Harry's missed out on, well... basically a hundred years of pop culture, almost. No Star Trek, No Star Wars..."

"Actually, I sort of saw some of that one." Harry said, frowning, "But Dudley shut it off less than halfway through and binned the tape. He thought it was boring."

"WHAT!?" Xander exploded, "That lard assed piece of..."

"Xander!" Hermione snapped, cutting him off.

"Sorry." Xander winced.

"Yes, well, despite his over enthusiasm, I have to agree with the sentiment." Hermione muttered, shooting glares at Xander. "Harry, you're cousin is an imbecile."

"Not arguing here."

"That said," Hermione sighed, "I suppose I can't blame Harry for making that horrid Captain Kirk joke either. It was obviously Xander's fault for corrupting his mind."

"Right." Harry agreed, a bit too fast in Xander's opinion. "It was his fault."

"Hey, I'm not the guy who told him to ignore your call afterward." Xander spoke up.

"That is true," Hermione glared at Harry again.

Harry looked stricken, glaring at Xander, "What'd you do that for!?"

"You were pretty quick to feed me to the wolves, dude." Xander snapped. "If I need to climb over you to get out of the pen, so be it."

"But..."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "That sterling example of friendship aside, I suppose I can forgive you both this one time. Xander was merely being Xander, acting the fool... and Harry was merely being Harry, being the naive, gullible, and unfortunately ignorant person that he is."

"HEY!" The two cried out together.

Hermione just smirked at then, her features obviously challenging them to challenge her. The two boys sighed for a bit, then both settled back down. Xander figured he was already in deep enough, all because he had decided to give Harry a hand, and Harry was just happy to be forgiven... such as it was.

Narcissa, for her part, thought the whole thing was hilarious from her point of view, but she was a little more interested in this muggle technique for capturing images. She had heard of Motion Pictures before, of course, mostly in offhand comments dropped by Lilly and other Muggle-borns. The thing was, she had always equated them to something more akin to magical photography, which had a spell limited time period of only a few seconds.

Unlimited length pictures, with full sound, was impressive. The closest thing in the Magical world was the use of a Pensieve, though the overall effect sounded different.

She would have to see one of these motion pictures, she decided.

The car slowed to a stop as that thought entered her mind, and the four were distracted as the car pulled up to the Tower of London, again heading directly for the Magical Entrance.

* * *

"Hold up a moment, Mr. Potter." Narcissa said as they walked into the tower. When Harry paused she drew her wand, "Just going to clean up the wrinkles, your suit obviously wasn't prepared correctly."

As she waved the wand, pressing the suit on his frame, Harry sighed.

"Sorry, I don't have a closet, just my school trunk."

Narcissa nodded, "I should have expected as much. Don't worry about it, I will tell you the same thing I told Mr. Harris... Failure is not something to be feared, failing to do your best, however, is. You obviously folded it and kept it clean as best you could under the circumstances. Do as well in the future, while always endeavoring to improve, and you will never have cause to regret."

"Uh... right. Thank you," Harry said as she finished up and he checked himself out as best he could.

She was right, it looked a lot better than it did. He nodded gratefully to her, and they were moving again, though the magical entrance of the Tower.

* * *

They were led to a room that Xander hadn't seen in his earlier visits, a huge chamber of a room that had to be smaller than it appeared, though Xander supposed that if they had used magic anything was possible.

It was a gathering place, room for hundreds or more, and the stone floor was bisected cleanly by a brilliant red carpet that led from where they stood, all the way to a throne.

"Oh wow." Xander mumbled quietly.

Hermione's jaw was open a little, her eyes wide, as she stared down the long length of carpet and recognized the person sitting on the throne in the distance. She peeped once, then went deathly silent.

Harry, for his part, just looked a little lost as they began the long, yet slow, walk along the carpet.

About halfway up they were joined by a ghostly figure that rose up from the floor, taking the time to examine them carefully.

"Oh, Xander, good to see you again." Anne said, "This is quite the occasion. A new Mage Knight. It's been the better part of eighty years or more since the last was Knighted."

They didn't pause in their step, and the ghost of the former queen floated along with them.

"Did you watch that one too?" Xander asked softly, eyes flicking between Anne and the current monarch, looking for annoyance in the one yet living.

When he didn't see a flicker, he relaxed marginally and focused a bit more on the spirit at his side.

"Oh yes, among the very rare instances of entertainment around here." She said, "Other than sneaking out to the closest theaters."

Xander barely muffled a snort of amusement, "You can do that?"

The spirit started to nod, but that caused her head to wobble and almost come loose. She recovered quickly, holding it in place as she too shot a look at the Queen on the throne they were approaching. It wouldn't do to look foolish in front of the monarch, even for a spirit.

"Oh yes," She said after a moment, her voice dropping. "Wouldn't miss the shows, either the live ones or the filmed ones. They make the afterlife so much more pleasant."

Narcissa just had time to sourly reflect on the fact that a spirit was better versed in common muggle facts that she was when they came to a stop.

A man stepped forward, standing stiffly at attention, and the four unconsciously matched his stance as best they could.

"Presenting Her Majesty, The Queen."


	81. Chapter 81

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

For Harry and Hermione, the position they found themselves in was one beyond their dreams. The woman in front of them was, for them, their monarch. Perhaps not as powerful an image as she once may have been, but to their minds the difference was practically nonexistent.

For Narcissa, despite her own place of birth, the woman was little more than a tale of fancy. There was a time, in the long distant past, when the Wizarding World answered to a King but those days were gone. Even so, there were few in her peer group that held as powerful a presence under their control as this woman did.

Xander, for a third point of view, came from a country that held monarchy as a quaint throwback to a barbaric era. Whether that was true or not had little impact on how he had been brought up, and so Xander didn't feel the same presence as the others. Neither the near mystical one that swept over Harry and Hermione, nor the power of personality that Narcissa so easily detected. For him, the woman in the chair was a familiar presence. She was powerful, he knew that by gut as well as by brain, and knew how to wield her power. He'd felt much the same in the presence of Lady Lavelle, and tended to react the same.

The Queen, in the meantime, had been sizing up her guests. The young Mr. Potter had the look of his family, she could tell. She had seen his father once, years ago, at a formal ball and his grandfather too had that same look about him. The others were something more of a mystery, well two of them were at any rate.

Hermione Jane Granger was an extremely bright and intelligent young girl who had vanished from public records a few years earlier. Prior to that she had been noted by her professors as one of the most intelligent people they had ever taught. The mystery of her disappearance from all scholastic records was now solved.

Narcissa Malfoy was a non-entity. Obviously Wizard born and, if the Queen was any judge of people, Wizarding Nobility at that. Her total lack of records in the 'muggle' world indicated a pureblood, though the Queen was not familiar with the Malfoy name.

Unusual.

The final member of the foursome was, perhaps oddly, of more interest to her than the rest. Mostly because of the spectral shade of Anne Boleyn floating by his side, whispering in his ear. She would give good money to know what the ghost was whispering, and how that peculiar relationship started.

Still, Alexander Harris was another unknown to them. He was apparently an American, but with nothing more than the name there were thousands of possible matches just in his age group. They managed to eliminate most of them, but that still left dozens who had never had an ID picture placed in any major network. And that assumed that he existed at all in the 'muggle' databases, were he a pureblood it was entirely possible he did not.

The fact that two complete unknowns were to be in the royal presence had driven security to near madness, in her opinion. Finally she had been forced to put her foot down and force action on their part. It wasn't as if they could realistically prevent assassination by a Wizard anyway. The Magicals had too many bizarre methods of killing that were entirely invisible to normal security. They wouldn't need something this complex in order to open the opportunity.

So she took a breath, and then the Queen opened her mouth and spoke.

"Welcome to the Tower, young Mr. Potter." She said, eyes firmly fixing on the nervous young man who was just now starting to fidget again.

"T... thank you, your Majesty." Harry said, fumbling through a bow.

"We have been reliably informed that you have accomplished a rather impressive act of heroism." She said, one eyebrow arcing slightly. "Slaying a serpent with a sword... Truly worthy of the bards."

"I... I mean, it wasn't all that much really."

Her eyes widened, "A sixty foot basilisk? Creatures of that nature do not curl up and die at the behest of children, men, nor even queens."

Harry, blushing wildly, shrugged a little helplessly but found himself unable to speak.

"Traditionally it is considered necessary to bring a token of the battle, however give your age..."

Narcissa grunted slightly and jammed Xander in the ribs with her elbow, causing him to yelp and cut off the Queen, much to the ire of the men flanking them. The Queen, however, merely looked to them curiously. Xander fumbled a little, but drew out a polished wooden box from under his coat. Narcissa had told him about this tradition, and he'd volunteered some of the basilisk they'd harvested. Hell, it was as much Harry's as his and Wednesday's anyway. Arguably more, he supposed, but then Harry hadn't wanted it.

He went down to one knee, like he'd been coached, and bowed his head as he presented the box. A man appeared from one side and accepted it, carefully examining it, then opened it before turning to the queen.

The Queen was silent as she looked into the box and saw the curved blade resting within, bone white and gleaming unnaturally.

"Basilisk Fang blade, your Majesty." Narcissa said softly, inclining her head slightly. "Be wary of handling it, the poison of the fang will still be lethal for centuries to come. It will penetrate any magical shield known, though it will chip and break against metal armor as does any tooth."

The Queen nodded slowly, "A true prize, much more than a token as I recall."

"Ma'am," Xander said, his throat dry as he got back to his feet, he'd devoured the sections of history books the Malfoy's had on the subject. "Historically, the blade was valuable for fighting men and assassins, so the fangs were hoarded by Knights who killed the snakes. That's why the tokens were usually smaller teeth or bone. Today, I think we can agree, soldiers prefer different weapons. The handle is enchanted to prevent the wielder from cutting themselves, so you don't need to worry about the poison if you hold it yourself. Never pick it up by the blade, however."

She nodded, closing the box and passing it back to one of her armsmen.

"We thank you for the token, Mr. Potter."

"But I didn... Ugh!" Harry started, looking lost and confused.

Hermione and Xander both jabbed him with their elbows, to the Queen's amusement and to his breathless pain. As Harry was trying to get his breath back, the Queen smiled and rose from her chair, reaching one hand out to the side.

Another attendant appeared, a sword resting on a pillow in his arms. She grasped the blade in both hands and held it up vertically in front of her face.

"Harry James Potter of the Magical House of Potter, do you swear on your life and magic that the deeds you have attested to are your own and no one elses?"

Hermione gasped.

Harry managed to straighten up, face confused. "I had help, Ma'am."

"We are aware of that, but did you do what you claimed?"

"I did."

"Then swear it."

"I swear," He said, lips parched and mouth like cotton as he spoke, "on my life and magic that I slew the Basilisk that was threatening Hogwarts."

A soft flash of light pulsed forth, and the Queen smiled almost sadly.

"So much danger for one so young. I had hoped we were beyond those days." She said, visibly getting herself back under full control. "Kneel, Harry James."

Harry almost fell to his knees as she approached and deftly lay the sword down on his right shoulder, then lifted it and lay it down on his left.

"Now rise, Sir Harry, Mage Knight of the Realm and Head of the Ancient House of Potter."

Harry nodded jerkily, getting back to his feet.

The Queen handed off the sword to the attendant once more and looked down at the scrawny teen before her. It was a wonder he'd lived through a stiff breeze, she thought, let alone a sixty foot magical serpent.

With a gesture she motioned off the attendants and guards, but didn't move from where she stood.

"You may wonder why we had you swear that you had, indeed, performed your service to the realm... and yet didn't ask for an oath of fealty, or really any oath of service one might normally associate with your new position."

Harry, who hadn't had a single coherent thought since she spoke to him the first time, barely managed to simultaneously nod and keep himself from drooling in his stunned stupor.

"The Potter legacy is unusual." She said, "It is the only hereditary Knighthood remaining in the magical World. All other family lines have long since been extinguished. Given the separation between the worlds, you now exist in a strange position, Sir Harry."

"I... I don't understand, Ma'am."

The Queen smiled slightly, "We are not surprised. You now exist in both worlds. This seems obvious, we suppose, but in reality very few people do. In fact, you may be one of only a half dozen people in all of Great Britain that officially exist in both worlds. While many muggle born, as you call them, move back and forth between worlds they usually move their official existence entirely into the Magical Realm for various legal and financial reasons."

Harry nodded, though while he understood the words he had no concept as to what they really meant.

The Queen, however, seemed to realize that.

"As The Mage Knight you will receive invitations to certain events throughout the year," She explained, "You will exist, insofar as our Government is concerned. Should you need to travel through normal routes, we believe you will find that MI5 and MI6 will expedite the needed paperwork. You will also need to fill out for taxes, though since most of your estate is maintained in the Wizarding realm, those should be quite low."

"In effect," She finished, "You will be a Citizen of Great Britain in a way that few magicals ever are."

"I... I didn't know about any of that," Harry confessed.

"We suspect you will find both good and bad things about it," The Queen said with a wry smile, which then became serious. "Given your dual existence, our power to command you is limited. The power of the Royalty within the Magical realm is that of the proverbial paper tiger. By strict interpretation of the law, we are the final power of the Magical Realm and the Ministry there governs by our leave and at our pleasure. In reality, power on paper is worthless without some form of Martial Might to back it up. Our world long ago gave up the position of Royal Wizard, and that was the final step in abdicating control of the Magical Realm."

"I... don't really understand, then." Harry admitted, more than a little shame faced. "What do I do?"

"Not all our power is gone, Sir Harry. Some was enforced by Magic." The Queen said coolly. "No Wizard has yet determined how to break that branch of our strength, nor do we expect any to do so. As a Knight of the Realm you are, magically, considered an adult. That makes you Head of your House, since your parents are deceased. You also gain the Royal Proxy, which you may use at our pleasure within your Wizengamot. Should you do so, we expect to be briefed on each vote and its consequences or you will find our pleasure short lived."

Harry nodded jerkily.

"While not a peer of the realm, you are the head of a Knightly Order, and that gains you some legal advantages that are enforced by ancient magics." She went on. "Primarily the right to bear arms and raise an armed force. Be careful of the second part of that, Sir Harry, most Knights who lost their 'spurs', so to speak, did so because they had delusions of grandeur."

"I- I will." He stammered out.

"Good. There are a few other trifles, as I recall, but the details escape me at the moment. We shall make the libraries available to you and those you designate if you care to research them."

Harry caught a glimpse of Hermione practically dancing from foot to foot and quickly nodded, "Thank you, ma'am."

She nodded once, then turned slightly as something caught her eye.

"Well, as I am being informed, there is another scheduled meeting today." She said, sighing before drawing herself up straight. "We must be leaving. Fair you well, Sir Harry James of Potter."

Harry swallowed hard, but hid it by bowing from the waist. "Good bye, Your Majesty."

Hermione fumbled slightly through a curtsy as she mumbled something the same as Harry, while Narcissa and Xander just bowed slightly as she left.

"Oh God." Harry croaked when they were safely alone. "I think I'm going to die."

* * *

It had been an interesting week, Xander considered as he plucked idly on the strings of the guitar, drawing a soft song that had the qualities of a lullaby from the old and somewhat battered instrument.

He was sitting in his room at Malfoy Manor, just processing his recollections as best he could, running everything through his Occlumency regime. Chayton had suggested that he meditate when he wanted to organize his thoughts, something an Occlumens had to do every few days or so, but Xander found it all worked better for him if his hands were busy.

Helping Harry out was an interesting experience, he decided. Not something he would normally have done for someone he barely knew, but since Xander felt he owed Mrs. Malfoy and maybe even Sirius a little for the help he'd received through the Grimoire, he'd gone a little further than he might otherwise.

Well, maybe not.

Harry and Ron had gone down into that pit with he and Wednesday, even if they each had their own reasons. While down there, they'd had to trust each other. Maybe he'd have helped Harry out based on that alone.

Hell, maybe he'd have helped out just to get the chance to meet the Queen and watch an honest to goodness Knighting ceremony right out of the tales of King Arthur.

Xander smiled, mentally cataloging that memory as important before filing it away in his long term storage.

Mental maps, the way Chayton had taught him, were an interesting affair. The mind was separated into short and long term storage. The short term section was relatively small, could really only hold a few hours of experience at best and degraded remarkably fast. On the flip side, it was thousands of times faster to access compared to long term storage and didn't require and 'memory tags' to properly recover. You could review your entire short term memory in an instant, and often did.

Long term was different. There was no obvious limit to how much it could store, though Xander had been told that some people seemed to run out of space and have to replace some memories with others. Wizards weren't sure if it was actually a physical limit that caused this, or some kind of mental block. Well, in a manner of speaking.

Willow had compared it to computer memory, much to his amusement. RAM and Hard Drive space. Frankly, though he didn't have the heart to tell her as much, Xander understood Chayton's explanation better.

She had brought up one interesting thing, however, that triggered a minor research storm on his part and a possible long term project. Non-magical science had determined that long term memories could be stored in chemical bonds, while short term was maintained in the electrical firing of the synapses. It made sense, to him at least, so he and Willow had made notes to look into it. Maybe something could be made of the project, he didn't know.

"What's that one?"

Xander jolted a little, his head snapping around to see Narcissa Malfoy leaning on the door frame. He frowned, confused by her question.

"The song."

Xander glanced down at his guitar, then back up, "Dormus charm."

"Fitting." Narcissa said, fascinated by the application of magic to music. "Do they all match like that?"

Xander cocked his head, considering the question. The Dormus sounded like a lullaby, and the Leviosa had a light, airy feeling to it. He nodded slowly, "So far. At least the obvious ones do."

"Obvious ones?"

"I plucked out the Protean back home," He said, "Didn't sound like anything really. Just a three meter beat with a little variation."

Narcissa nodded, "I suppose it's coincidence."

"Maybe. Maybe it's more than that." Xander shook his head, "I guess we'll never know."

"Perhaps one day you'll write a book on it." Narcissa smiled.

"Maybe." Xander shrugged, "I've started one already, actually."

"A book? On music and magic?" She was surprised.

"No," Xander shrugged, unlooping the guitar from his neck and laying it back on the bed. He reached over and got one of his notebooks from where his trunk was at the foot and tossed it lightly to her.

Narcissa Malfoy glanced at the title, her eyebrows raising slightly.

The book's cover was written in neat calligraphy, and read simply 'The True Art of the Technomancer'. She snorted slightly.

Xander grinned, "I know, it's a little pretentious, but it's fun."

"Charming muggle contraptions is barely magic, Alexander." She said lightly as she handed the book back.

He shook his head, "That's not what the book's about."

"I've heard of this so called 'Technomancy' before, it's a silly branch of child's games, just trying to make muggle toys work."

"No, that's..." Xander paused, thinking about it, "A branch of Technomancy, Mrs. Malfoy. I think it's a very small branch. Did you know that non magicals had invented a new material lighter than silk, but stronger than steel?"

Narcissa blinked. The last she'd heard and any NEW materials being invented it had been alchemists behind it.

"They've invented thousands of new materials in the last few decades," Xander went on, "And most of them seem to have interesting properties when mixed with magic. Carbon, for example, makes for pretty decent wands."

Her eyes flicked to the plain black wands he'd laid out on the night stand by his bed. She had assumed it was some sort of polish, or a dark wood.

"They didn't invent carbon, of course. Pure carbon is the same thing that coal is made of, or diamonds." Xander said, "They just invented new ways to put the carbon together. Non magicals create entirely new materials every other day now, so my friends and I have been toying with how we can use these materials magically. That's what the book is about."

Narcissa eyed the book where Xander had laid it down, new interest forming. "I see. Perhaps it's not an entirely wasted avenue of research. At least we don't have a budding Arthur Weasley in the house."

Xander looked at her, confused for a moment, but she just laughed lightly and waved his questioning look off.

"Good night, Alexander."

"Good Night, Mrs. Malfoy."

* * *

For Harry, back at Privet Drive, things were in something of a mental turmoil. Thankfully, his relatives were pretty well terrified of him once more and they were leaving him in peace. He wasn't sure what scared them more, the fact that he could use magic freely now or the fact that a car with the Royal emblem had picked him up and dropped him off.

He'd heard Petunia playing it off to the neighbors as something 'terribly hush hush', and she "really couldn't speak about her family's connection to the royals". It amused and irritated him, but honestly as long as she was playing her little social games, she wasn't bothering him.

Vernon was another matter, unfortunately. For now it was holding, the fat man was too scared to do anything, but Harry wasn't sure it would hold for long. Dudley, he knew for a fact was too stupid to realize that things had changed.

And all of THAT left him with a dilemma.

He was an adult in the eyes of magic now, though he hadn't claimed any of his rights as of yet, other than using a little magic now and again. Since that was masked by Mrs. Malfoy's counterspell on his wand, Harry didn't suppose it really counted. Still, the point was that he could move out if he chose.

Was that a smart move, however?

If Mrs. Malfoy was right, the wards here at privet drive were second only to *possibly* the full wards at Gringotts or Hogwarts. In fact, for normal everyday considerations, the wards at privet drive were demonstrably superior to either place, at least as far as he was concerned. Oh, he'd certainly be safer locked in a vault at Gringotts, but who wanted to live like that? Also, Hogwarts, with all the wards fully activated was probably safer but, again, a fortress did not make for much of a home.

Neither did privet drive, of course, but since neither locking himself in a vault or turning Hogwarts into a magical fortress was going to happen, privet drive was the safest place on the planet for him to stay.

And did that little revelation leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Harry looked up at the calendar on the wall, with the days crossed off one by one. He had a little less than a week before he was due to go to the Weasleys. Harry decided that he could safely shelve the decision effectively until the next summer. He could endure a few more days, especially since he was now able to practice magic once more.

He didn't know what he would do next year, though at the moment he was leaning toward enduring more time with the Dursleys. Between the ability to do magic, and the instruction he'd received from Xander on how to take the Knight Bus, Harry figured he could take a little aggravation in exchange for the safety provided by blood wards.

Of course, that did bring up another point. He had to confirm that there were, indeed, blood wards on the house. Mrs. Malfoy seemed fairly confident of that fact, or at least concerned enough not to want to test them, but she had admitted that they may simply be extremely effective intent based wards.

Those were the sorts of things he could hire someone to erect anywhere, assuming he had the money. His account ledger was impressive sounding, at least to him, but Harry didn't know what the prices of such things were.

He'd have to find out, he supposed. There really was so much to do.

* * *

Narcissa entered the sitting room adjacent to the Master bedroom to find Lucius waiting for her.

"Yes?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow, "did you want something?"

"I just had an interesting conversation with Draco."

Narcissa suppressed a sigh. She'd expected this, of course, and hadn't bothered to tell Draco to keep quiet, since she had known that he wasn't likely to listen.

"And?" Was all she asked as she stepped in front of the mirror and unbuttoned her robes.

"What on earth could have possessed you to take the Potter brat to Paris with you?" Lucius demanded, "particularly without informing me?"

Narcissa snorted softly. There was the real crux, she suspected. "What would you have done, husband? Forbid it?"

Lucius whitened, "From what Draco tells me, Potter dresses like a pauper most of the time. Where did the gold come from to pay for all this?"

"From the Black accounts."

"What?" Lucius leaned forward, eyes wide.

"Sirius is the boy's Godfather, Lucius." She reminded her husband lightly as she let her robes fall to the floor and stepped out of them.

She really was a little put out that the sight of her in the silk undergarments meant less to her husband than the subject of Potter and her Cousin, but, not really surprised. When he started to growl again she cut him off, "Honestly Lucius, what is this really about? You're not still angry with the boy over losing Dobby are you?"

"That little... brat has no respect for our traditions!" Lucius ground out.

"Of course he doesn't. He doesn't know them."

"He... wait, what?"

Narcissa rolled her eyes, "Lucius, do use your mind. I know it's there. You yourself said that Potter lives in a muggle neighborhood."

"Obviously a heavily warded house..."

"Against wizards, yes. However it's a muggle home." She said, "I visited him. To be honest, I think that if you and your 'friends' were to pay a visit to the boy's so called family, he might secretly be grateful. Disgusting creatures. He was brought up entirely ignorant of magic, Lucius. Even his mail is apparently under redirect wards."

Lucius' eyes widened and he slumped back in his chair. "That's..."

"Obscene." Narcissa finished, slipping into her night gown. "Harry Potter will never be the perfect pureblood you would wish for, however he isn't the revolutionary nightmare you and Draco portray him as either. He is a young, ignorant, and terribly confused child. I suspect that someone has been carefully introducing him to our world in just the right way to make him choose a side. Something that you and Draco have rather neatly played into, I might add."

"Dumbledore." Lucius growled, eyes flaring.

"Who else?" Narcissa laughed lightly. "The man might be a great many things, but he's no fool when it comes to political maneuvering."

* * *

Harry was never quite so glad to get out of Privet Drive, though for once he had to admit that it wasn't the Dursleys fault exactly. After the horrendous mess Mr. Weasley and the Twins made trying to Floo into an electric fireplace, something Harry had never even considered POSSIBLE before then, and the following insanity the twins always seemed to leave in their wake, Harry didn't want to tempt fate by staying within reach of Vernon for a while.

He was setup quickly in The Burrow, sharing a room with Ron as was normal, and the growing excitement of the upcoming world cup had begun to blot out his worries concerning everything else that had gone on in his life. That was what he loved about the Burrow, this was the only place Harry had every felt like a normal kid in his entire life.

"Hey mate," Ron interrupted his thoughts, "Rough summer, I guess, huh?"

Harry opened his eyes and looked over at his best mate, "I don't know. It could have been worse."

"Well, you're away from those muggles now, at least." Ron grinned, "And the World Cup is in just a few days!"

Harry grinned. It was the eighth time since he'd arrived that Ron started on about the Cup, but he didn't mind. If the Burrow was the one place he felt like a kid, the Quidditch pitch was the only place he felt like he'd earned the admiration people sent his way. To see others, professionals, play was almost as awesome as getting out on a broom himself.

"It's going to be brilliant." Ron said.

Harry agreed whole heartedly, "Absolutely."

* * *

' The bars in this dump of a town are cesspits, ' Amelia sighed as she moved in on her 'target'.

The Lord Black, exile or not, was at least relatively easy on the eyes. She could have drawn worse lots from the family than the strong suggestion that she may want to 'take an interest' in him. His choice in hobbies was distasteful to her, but then most males tended to play around in muck that she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

Luckily they rarely wanted her, or any woman, playing in their toy box so it wasn't much of an issue.

Tonight, The Lord Black seemed in a decent mood, so she put a sway to her hips and an airheaded smile on her face and stalked her way over to where Black was sitting.

"Hey there, I've seen you in here a bit." She said by way of introduction.

He looked up at her, a smile blossoming on his face. "I'm new in town, but I've been dropping by for a while."

"Well, buy me a drink then, stranger?" She asked, cocking her head and hips just enough to be noticed.

"Sure," Sirius smiled, "Have a seat."

* * *

The World Cup of Quidditch turned out to be quite the event when Xander showed up with the Malfoy's early in the day. People were just beginning to arrive and already the camp ground was flooding with the most bizarrely dressed Wizards Xander had ever seen in his life, barring Headmaster Dumbledore.

"I thought the instructions were to 'go muggle'" Xander blinked, looking around, more than a little bemused.

Lucius sniffed slightly, "As if I would ever..."

"Actually Sir, you look great compared to some of these people. What IS that guy wearing?" Xander cringed as a man walked by in a ballroom gown.

"Robes, I presume," Lucius eyed the man briefly, "That's Archibald Anders, and I suppose it's a robe."

"No, that's a dress. Women wear them."

Lucius turned his attention back and peered closer, "Looks like a robe to me, though why you'd ever want one so... frilly I'm not sure."

"It's an old dress," Xander said, just barely keeping from laughing. "Like, seventies or early eighties prom style. Wait, look when he turns back around, check the cut of the chest."

When Anders turned back around Lucius realized that the cut was indeed a little... full... in the chest. He shook his head, "Anders never was a sensible sort."

"So we look fine?" Narcissa asked, curious.

Xander checked out the Malfoy's again and nodded, "Yeah. Oh, you don't look average for sure. But any non-magical who looked at you would only note that you're probably wealthy enough to be eccentric. Him, they'd consider totally nuts. If you were trying to blend in, you'd have to dress down a little, but there's no way any non-magical would think there was anything seriously weird about you. Just a little weird."

Lucius stiffened, glaring at the boy, who just grinned back.

"Don't take it as an insult, Sir. Non Magicals often pride themselves in being a little weird. Sometimes it's the only way people have to feel... different from the crowd." Xander said pensively, remembering his beloved Hawaiian shirts. "You all look good enough that any attention you get will be admiring instead of the bad sort."

Lucius wasn't certain how to take that, but decided that it wasn't a bad thing at least. Not that anyone would be critical of him, he WAS a Malfoy after all. But it was good to know that even without trying he and his family fit in and would be recognized as a cut above.

He nodded in the direction of the amphitheater, "That way. We should say hello to the Minister before everyone starts flooding in."

"Oh joy." Xander muttered, earning soft snicker from Narcissa and a disapproving glare from Lucius.

"Yes, you might consider apologizing for that mess," Lucius suggested.

"Uh, no." Xander said firmly. "I stand by that."

"Whether you stand by it or not is hardly relevant. It's done with, now if you have any brains at all you should begin repairing your bridges." The man said sternly, his tone lecturing. Just as he finished he realized that he was giving advice to a young man he really didn't like and just barely kept from groaning at the realization. "Do as you will."

Xander nodded absently, looking around the scene as they walked. "This is freaking amazing."

Lucius nodded as well, eyeing the large structure as they approached. "Seats a hundred thousand. Built in just two months, of course they spent the previous eight months laying all the charm wards to keep the area hidden from Muggles."

Xander whistled, "That has to be some complicated warding."

"Not just wards," Narcissa said, "Huge charm arrays as well, and those don't last long so they have to be reapplied often."

"It's an immense tasking," Lucius admitted, "It's taken 500 ministry wizards to manage it."

"Cool." Xander whispered as they arrived at the camp ground and came to a stop at the Ministry tent.

"Oh! Lucius, so good to see you," A flustered Minister Fudge said as he noticed them, "And your family too, Narcissa, Draco, wonderful to see you a..."

Cornelius Fudge trailed off as he recognized Xander, a sour look coming over his face, "You."

"Ah Minister," Narcissa smoothly cut in, smiling, "You know Alexander of course? He's staying with us over the summer."

"Is he?" Fudge asked, forcing a sickly smile to his face. "How... nice."

Xander took a breath. He would not apologize for what he did, but even he recognized the need to hold up an olive branch. "Minister, I'm terribly sorry for having caused you any trouble back at Hogwarts."

"Yes well, boys should stay out of official business." Fudge muttered, eyes darting between Lucius and Xander.

"Indeed they should, however since his actions did rescue my head of house," Narcissa cut in again, "I can't say that I'm terribly sorry for them. We do apologize for the inconvenience to you, however."

"Inconvenience? Incon..." Fudge began to turn a really impressive color of red, but was sidetracked when Lucius caught his eye and shook his head slightly. He slowly got his breath back and swallowed, looking like he'd just forced down a pill intended for horses. "Yes, well. What's done is done. Let's move on, shall we? Shame to waste such a lovely day on political nonsense."

"Of course, Minister." Narcissa smiled beatifically.

Lucius gently took the Minister by arm and led him away, chatting closely, leaving them as they were. Narcissa took a breath, rolled her eyes, and shuddered just a little.

"There goes a greasy little worm," She muttered before taking Xander and her son under her arms and turning them around. "Well let's get settled at our camp then, then you two can explore."

"Yes mother." Draco said as they began walking.

* * *

The Malfoy 'tent' looked like something out of the Arabian Desert more than any camping tent Xander had ever seen. It rose up two *stories* above the tents pitched around them, and Xander recognized the distinct buzz of active wards as they approached.

Along the way he noted some familiar names near other, not quite so opulent tents. Parkinson was right next to the Malfoy tent, as were the Crabbe and Goyle tents. Nearby, Xander recognized the Greengrass name as well as several others from his house at Hogwarts.

Most of them were still empty, the grounds still only just beginning to fill up.

"Here we are." Narcissa said, pushing the canvas aside as she stepped into the tent, followed by Xander and Draco.

"Holy Shit." Xander sputtered as the marble lined interior was revealed, complete with running fountain.

"Alexander! Language!" Narcissa snapped, shutting him up.

"Sorry, but... I mean... Holy Sh-ow!" Xander yelped as he caught a palm across the back of his head.

"I will not send you back to your mother cursing like some lowborn guttersnipe." Narcissa growled.

"Alright, alright." Xander muttered, rubbing his head. "But, heck... this is a TENT?"

Narcissa glanced around, "It's smaller than home, but it will do for the night. Why don't you see if Pansy and her family have arrived yet, Draco?"

Draco nodded and left quickly, just as pleased to be away from Xander.

Xander, for his part, could only stare in stunned fashion as Narcissa inspected the surroundings.

"Yes, it should do." She said finally.

"How do you cram all that in here anyway?" Xander muttered, shaking his head.

"Spacial expansion charms, of course." Narcissa shrugged. "They're not difficult."

Xander frowned, "I thought they were. I mean, my trunk cost a fortune."

"Yes, however you use a multi compartment trunk, with the space expanding FAR beyond the optimal equations." Narcissa explained. "This was quite a large tent to begin with, you see, so the space that was possible to create in here was commensurately larger. Expanding a trunk to, say, ten times it's normal size is easy. Doing that four times over and fitting each space into the same trunk? That's substantially more difficult."

Xander just looked around in awe, "Man I need to start looking up these charms."

"Chapter thirty three in the Grimoire." Narcissa said absently. "But do it later, you should get out and explore. This is not an event to be missed, Alexander."


	82. Chapter 82

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander had to agree with Mrs. Malfoy on that point, it was most certainly not an event to be missed. As he moved around the grounds, it became quite clear that his initial belief that people had not really begun arriving yet was both right and wrong.

Wrong because there were thousands of people already there, most of them just waking in their own tents and making their way out to meet the day, and right because the thousands already there were just a drop in the bucket compared to the volume that was clearly pouring in. As he moved around he noted, with some trepidation, the obviously non-magical caretaker of the grounds being obliviated no less than twice in just a few minutes because some careless twit of a wizard wouldn't shut up about bludgers and snitches.

That had always felt wrong to him, from the first time he saw someone obliviated. Especially since it was something that was so damned easy to avoid. Why setup on a non-magical campground anyway? How much harder could it possibly have been to use a field outside of Hogsmeade? It wasn't like wizarding tents needed plumbing hookups or anything.

Xander sighed and pushed it out of his mind, given that there just wasn't anything he could do about it.

As he looked around the rest of the field he passed several groups he recognized from name if nothing else. Salem had sent two groups, at least, to the World's Cup. The Salem Witches Institute had a large tent, surrounded by several... well 'aged' witches, which suggested to Xander that whatever the institute was, it wasn't a school. The Academy also had a tent, and Xander stopped by there when he recognized Professor Hardy chaperoning the group.

"Professor." He greeted the older man, grinning.

Hardy did a bit of a double take, then returned the smile. "Alex! Good to see you, I didn't think you'd be here, what with the way things ended last year and all."

"Well, friends in high places I guess," Xander grinned some more, "I'm summering with the Malfoy family, by request of Mrs. Malfoy. She was born a Black, you see."

Hardy nodded, "Ah yes. And the portkey did whisk Sirius Black from under the Minister's nose. So, everything's been smoothed out?"

Xander nodded, "Yeah. I'm back in Hogwarts this year."

Hardy couldn't quite mask the disappointed and slightly disapproving look that crossed his face, but he didn't let it filter through to his words. "Well that's good then."

Good was the last thing he personally considered it. He had seen some of the work Harris did on his own, and the relatively decent marks the boy got, and strongly felt like the boy could do far better if he weren't forced to contend with extra courses on top of the relatively useless ones he had to attend at Hogwarts.

While the British school was widely acknowledged as one of the finest schools of its type in the world, Hardy was well aware that it was riding on the shoulders of past giants. In the modern world, however, things were a little different. Even today, of course, the charms and transfiguration courses were among the finest on the planet. Only a few apprenticeships were more respected.

Defense, Potions, and history however were on the total opposite end of the board. Hardy would prefer to see what the boy could do with better support across the board.

"Professor?"

The two turned to see a young boy approach.

"Yes, Jackson?"

"We're ready now."

"Alright, I'll be right there." Hardy said before turning back to Xander, "Sorry, I've got some things to finish."

"No problem, I have some more exploring to do."

"Alright, I'll see you later." Hardy smiled.

"Cya." Xander flipped a wave, then headed off.

He moved off, continuing his exploration. He hadn't gotten very far before his spell phone whistled softly, and he casually flipped it open. "Yo. Xander here."

"Xander," Hermione's voice came through the device, "We just arrived at the world cup, are you here?"

"Yeah, I'm just wandering around the grounds," He said, "Near the Salem tents."

"Oh! We just passed that."

Xander looked around, "Don't see you. Which tent?"

"Salem Witches Institute."

"Oh, kay I'm near the Academy tent. I'll be with you guys in a second."

"Ok, we'll wait." Hermione said.

Xander smirked, "Cool. Harris out."

Xander heard Hermione's irritated shriek even after the phone clicked off, and happily headed off in that direction. He found her with Harry and the Weasley's just a little distance away.

"Hey guys."

"Oh look," Twin One spoke up on seeing Xander.

"Our favorite test subject,"

"Has arrived."

Xander sighed and rolled his eyes, "Jeez, Harry, Hermione... I'll never understand why you hang out with those two."

"Who's this then?" A genial looking man asked, smiling at Xander.

"This is Xander, Sir. You've seen him before, I think?"

"I think he was a little distracted at the time, Harry." Xander said, extending his hand, "We met at the end of second year."

Arthur's face blanked for a moment and he nodded sharply, "Yes. I remember. You've changed a bit lad. I guess I owe you some thanks again for what you did."

"Didn't do it for your daughter, Sir. Not really." Xander said with a half-smile, "That snake just had to go."

"Imagine that," Twin Two said.

"A Slytherin who's against snakes." Twin One finished.

Xander rolled his eyes, "Yeah, and we'll see how you guys react to a lion mauling one of your pals."

They glanced at each other, "He has a point."

"I hate it when he does that."

"Boys, cut that out." Molly Weasley finally cut in, then turned to smile at Xander. "Whatever your reasons, you went with Harry to save our daughter. We owe you a debt. Thank you."

"Well, let's move on to our tent then," Arthur said, edging them along. "Why don't you join us, Xander?"

"Thank you, Sir." Xander nodded, walking along.

The Weasley tent was far more humble than the Malfoy, but Xander was still shocked by the interior. He really had to look up the information on the expansion charms when he got a chance, what he was seeing was far and above what he'd expected from seeing his trunk in action. Probably because he was now seeing it on a larger scale, and all at once instead of hidden by clever organization charms. There was a lot of potential for real fun in this, he believed.

"So, Xander, are you looking forward to the Cup?" Harry asked as they settled in, ice drinks having been passed around.

Xander shrugged, "Eh. It'll be cool, I guess."

Ron and pretty much the whole Weasley family stared at him, horrified at his lack of enthusiasm.

"How can you say that? It's going to be AWESOME!" Ron exploded, or maybe just burbled somehow, "This is the most brilliant summer EVER!"

Xander could see most of the rest agreeing, but could only shrug, "I've never really been into sports, so that's probably why I'm not more excited. When I see a Quidditch game in action, I'll be honest, my brain is more interested in how the heck those brooms fly."

Hermione was the only one who agreed with him, "I know! And the charms on the Bludgers are just bizarre."

Xander laughed, "Yeah. I've often wondered if you could tie their seeking charms into something specific."

"Like what?" One of the twins asked, curious.

"I don't know," Xander shrugged, "seems like old Mold in his Shorts' Dark Mark would be funny as hell though."

Half the people in the room choked on their drinks.

"M-M-Mold in his shorts?" Molly Weasley gasped out in between coughs.

"I can never remember his name," Xander admitted, "The Dark lord dude, Tom Riddle. Since he's still running, or floating, around I guess his followers are still around too. He branded them all with the protean, which is a tricky spell. I think you could link a bludger into it though. Would be funny as hell to watch."

The twins were cackling their heads off, drawing worried looks from their parents, while some of the others were looking at him in a vague form of horror.

"Hmm, it would be rather difficult to break into the Protean network, though, wouldn't it?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think I'd try," Xander admitted, "I'd use one of the Vodoun variations of the Protean, they aren't as perfect in how they work, but they have a lot more room for tinkering."

"Wait, back up," Twin one gasped out, sitting up.

Twin two whipped out a notebook, "Vodoun?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "African magic. It's ancient and tribal, far older than our form."

Xander nodded, "Today its modern evolution is usually better known as Voodoo."

"Xander, you know quite well that Voodoo is a horrible mangling of the original rituals," Hermione chastised him.

"Well yeah, but the Voodoo Doll uses the exact variation of the charm you'd need to work with, I think." Xander countered.

Hermione harrumphed, folding her arms in front of her, but didn't counter him.

"Voodoo? Isn't that pretty dark magic?" Harry asked.

That question earned Xander some suspicious looks, the hardest of which came from Ron. He considered it for a bit, then shrugged, "Well the Voodoo doll itself is. The most powerful versions of it are blood based, I think. Though some only use sweat or hair, so I'm not sure where it really sits. The modified charm itself, though, isn't dark. I mean, it's not light or anything, but are there any 'light spells'?"

"Actually, yes." A tall redhead interjected, "Though not many are widely used. The most common in Britain, which is still pretty bloody rare, is the Patronus Charm. It's almost entirely composed of joy molded magic, which is usually pretty light."

"Usually, Bill?" Hermione asked, interested.

"There are ancient examples of a 'Dark Patronus'," Bill admitted, frowning, "But no writings on how they were cast."

"Thank merlin." Molly said, shivering.

Xander frowned, thinking about it. "Well... What if someone like Moldy cast it?"

"People who've done that much evil can't usually cast a Patronus," Arthur said, musingly. "Acts like that tend to make drawing up the positive emotions difficult."

"What if... he really loved every second of what he did?" Xander suggested. "I mean, that would still be joy, right? Pretty twisted, but from his side it would still be joy."

Bill hummed a bit, "Interesting suggestion. You'd have to be dealing with a mind that's totally evil, though."

"Sounds like Death Eaters to me," Ron said.

"No, Ron, you don't understand..." Bill shook his head, "The person would have to be PURE evil. Any thoughts even remotely like what we would consider 'sanity' would cloud the effect."

"Right. Death Eaters."

Hermione, Bill, and Xander groaned.

"Anyway," Molly cut in, "As fascinating as this conversation is, could we move on to lighter subjects? All this talk of evil and death eaters is hardly appropriate."

"Right, sorry Mum." Bill said, smiling affably. "Another time maybe?"

"Sure." Xander shrugged, more than willing to change the subject.

Xander had, during the conversation, noted the style of dress of the Weasleys and found himself staring at Arthur rather closely in the lull.

"Uh, is something wrong?" The friendly man asked, smiling a little bemusedly.

"No," Xander shook his head, "Just thinking about the way people are dressed today."

Arthur frowned, looking down at himself, "Is this wrong?"

"No, no," Xander said, "Just not a great fit for you. You're dressed pretty well compared to most."

"Do you know much about Muggle customs then?" Molly asked, appearing with a tray of snacks from the tent's kitchen.

"Non-magical raised, Ma'am." Xander said with a smile.

"In Slytherin?" Ron blurted, "They let muggle-borns in Slytherin?"

"Honestly Ron!" Hermione huffed, "Don't you ever pay attention, of course they do!"

"I'm not a muggle-born, however, just non-magical raised." Xander corrected, leaning back. "To be honest, I'm missing it right now. I'm going to be two years behind my TV and movies by the time I get back."

Hermione nodded in agreement, "I know what you mean. Only a couple weeks just isn't enough to catch up."

"Tee Vee?" Arthur asked, looking like he was getting more and more excited, "Does that use plugs?"

Xander blinked, "Uh... well, mostly, yeah. You can get some that use batteries I guess..."

He, while focused on Arthur, had totally missed half the rest of the people trying to warn him of the impending conversational doom.

"Really? I collect plugs and batteries!" Arthur said enthusiastically.

"Uh..." Xander stared, "But... why?"

"Dad has a whole shed of muggle stuff," Ron said while stuffing his face with snacks. "None of it works, though. They don't build stuff to last, do they?"

"Ron!" Arthur berated him, "I told you, muggle technology doesn't work around magic."

"Well, that's not true exactly." Xander corrected, "Mostly it's microchips that don't work around magic. So anything without chips can be modified to run on magical spells, if you understand both the tech and the magic well enough. Sirius was talking about putting together a magical motorcycle before I left Cali. I guess that, for the main part of the power plant you just need some minor explosive charms in the engine cylinder. So most older tech works pretty well around magic."

"So how come none of Dad's junk works?" Ron asked.

"Just guessing, but I'd say that there's probably no power running to any of it." Xander said, "One piece of non-magical tech that doesn't work well besides chips is actually batteries. I read about it while looking up Technomancy, something about ward fields drain's power from batteries in minutes."

"Oh! Oh! I read about that too!" Hermione jumped in, "Some people think that wards suck the potential energy out of the battery to help power themselves."

Xander nodded, "Right. Whatever reason, it's pointless to bring batteries into a magical area. Unless, you know, you want to add some juice to the ward lines."

Bill chewed idly on a piece of grass he'd plucked from outside, "Is there any evidence that would work?"

Hermione frowned, but shook her head, "I haven't seen any studies on it."

"They did some in the states," Xander said, "But they were pretty badly handled."

"Really?" Hermione blinked.

"Yeah, they used off the shelf batteries instead of industrial stuff. Your average Duracell just doesn't pack enough juice to be noticeable." Xander said, "You'd want some heavy duty stuff to test that, and probably a lot of it."

"Still, you're saying that it might be possible to enforce wards with the juice in these batteries?" Bill asked, genuinely interested.

"That's the standing theory," Xander shrugged, "Like I said, if anyone has actually tested it, they've either kept the results secret or fouled up the tests like I said. Still, to be honest I don't think it would be worth much."

"Why not? It sounds useful to me." Bill frowned.

Hermione nodded, "Me too!"

"Well, batteries drain fast. In just a few minutes," Xander said, "So I don't think it would last long, right? And how do you keep the batteries from going dead before you need them?"

"Oh. Yeah, you're right." Hermione frowned.

"He is?" Ron, Bill, and Ginny blinked, all of them looking confused.

"Yeah, I think he is." Hermione sighed, "Even if it works it would only be a short term boost, that would happen right at the point you took the battery into the wards. I suppose you could store them outside the wards and draw them in if you were attacked..."

"Yeah, and those would be the first thing someone hit once that secret got out," Xander chuckled.

What he didn't add was the sudden thought that struck him concerning the subject. All the stuff he'd read had pointed to much the same thing concerning electricity, though for a more well-known and understood reason. Lightning wards were one of the most common home warding schemes in use because they were easy to setup and they provided a lot of protection to a home... in addition to directing power to the ward stones for other wards. Xander suddenly had to wonder what if you were to direct a live current from a power line into a lightning ward. If it worked the same as against lightning, it would power wards similarly.

Of course, as soon as he thought it, Xander realized that there was no way in hell someone else hadn't already done this. There were no reports of it, however, which meant that it either failed entirely or... Xander whistled softly.

"Xander? What is it? Are you ok?" Hermione nudged him.

Xander shook himself, "Yeah. Just a stray thought. Something to put in the notebook later."

Hermione nodded, "Oh."

"Notebook?" Bill asked, bemused.

"Xander keeps notes on any interesting spells or ideas he has," Hermione informed them primly, "Many of us do. That way we don't forget to check them out later on."

Bill nodded, "Makes sense. I knew a few people who did that too. I was always too busy with other things, myself."

"Helps keep everything straight," Xander admitted, "I have too much crap going on to try and remember stuff. Ever since I got my letter from Salem my life has been speeding up with every year. First year wasn't too bad, only school work and stuff. By second year I had my own projects and stuff to add to that, and this year well suddenly I've got dueling training, Occlumency training, my projects, school work... it's getting insane."

"You're taking dueling training?" Harry looked surprised.

"We do live in a dueling society, Harry." Xander said with a wry grin, "Something I didn't know until I got my teacher."

"We do?" Harry looked around, confused, as did Hermione.

"It's mostly only of concern to higher levels of society," Arthur admitted, "Honor duels mostly involve titled families."

"Like, oh, say Potter?" Xander asked dryly.

Several of the Weasley's flinched at that, and looked to Harry with surprise and worry on their face. Harry, for his part, just looked a little ill.

"It's really that common?" He asked.

"Nah." Xander shook his head, "Not for the most part. But it's a very real possibility. Kids like Draco start dueling training when they get their wand at the latest. I'd guess Draco started well before that. You're lucky you're a natural wand hand, Harry, or Draco would slaughter you."

"How come we never got dueling training, mum?" Ron demanded.

"Ron," Arthur sighed, "No Weasley has been involved in an Honor Duel in centuries. Certainly no Weasley child needs that kind of training."

"Harry should have it, though, Dad." Bill said thoughtfully. "I never thought of it before, but when he's of age there'll be a real risk of challenges."

Xander's eyes widened slightly and his head snapped around to look at Harry, one thought running through his mind. Simultaneously, Hermione gasped and covered her mouth to try and hide the shock.

Both of them realized that the other was thinking the exact same thing.

When he's of age.

Harry must have realized it as well, because his face went ashen and he slumped a little as he remembered one of the little side effects of the little ceremony was being considered by magic to be an adult.

Harry felt his stomach drop, and he looked to Hermione in a near panic.

"It's alright, Harry dear," Molly said, noting his sudden discomfort. "You don't need to worry about that for a while. No one can challenge minors."

Harry smiled, looking sick.

"Besides," Bill smiled, "You can't issue challenges at Hogwarts anyway. It's in the bylaws and enforced by the wards."

That made him feel a little bit better. "Really?"

"Really." Bill nodded, "The founders felt that honor duels had no place in a school so they took steps to prevent it."

Ok, Xander was breathing a little better now too as his mind raced to put it together. Why the hell hadn't they been informed about this anyway? Was Narcissa playing a game intended to get Harry out of the way? If so, wouldn't Sirius have seen it coming? Still, Harry was pretty heavily protected at home in addition to Hogwarts, so that meant he was safe most of the time.

He looked over at Hermione, whose eyes were setting as she glared back at him. Xander shrugged helplessly, which thankfully caused her to soften slightly.

His eyes widened, asking her silently, Research?

Research, was the definite reply.

Alright. New priority tasking, Xander thought to himself. Ok, they could do this. In fact, he'd get a jump on things.

"I'm going to get some air," He said, standing up. "It's been great to meet you all."

"Oh, fantastic to meet you too. Please, drop by anytime." Arthur said, grasping Xander's hand and pumping it powerfully.

After a series of goodbye's Xander stepped outside, already flipping his spell phone open and thumbing the rune rings around. A few moments later he had it up as the call went through.

"Hey Wills." he said quietly as he moved away from the Weasley's tent.

"Xander!" The Bubbly redhead's voice came through. "How is England?"

"It's fine, but I need a favor."

"What is it?" Willow asked, suddenly concerned.

"Research. Code Duelo." Xander said seriously. "And get Sirius in on this too. Harry's an adult and I just found out he could be challenged to a duel."

"Oh my." Willow gasped. "Are you sure?"

"No. That's why I'm asking."

"Oh, right. Ok, I'm on it. What are you going to do?"

"Enjoy the game," Xander said wryly. "I've got no books here and I can't just leave without basically insulting my hosts."

"Ok, well I'm all over this, but we may need to buy some more books." Willow said.

"You've got the money I left, right?"

"Yeah, but you know, it's yours and I wanted to ask..."

"I left it so you could get books or whatever you needed, Wills." Xander said, "You don't need to ask. Thanks."

"No problem. Now don't just call when it's an emergency, Mister," She told him, mock fiercely. "Or we'll have words when you get back."

"Sorry, I'll give you a call in a couple days. And hey, you've got a phone too." Xander grinned in return.

"Oh. Right. Well... you'd better."

"Cya Wills, Xander out." Xander said, chuckling to himself as he flipped the phone shut again.


	83. Chapter 83

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander met up with the Malfoy's again as the crowd began to get cranked for the match, and they went as a group to the Minister's box. He had to admit that they were pretty good seats, given the sheer size of the pitch and stands, and he said as much.

"Of course." Draco said, smirking. "Only the best sit here."

"Speaking of." Xander couldn't help but smirk back as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley appeared, with kids in tow.

Draco's jaw about landed in his lap as he watched the troupe settle in, and he almost missed his father's snide comment.

"Good Lord, Weasley. What did you sell to get seats in this box?" Lucius asked, just loud enough to be heard, "Surely your house couldn't have fetched this much."

Arthur Weasley turned fire red, as did Ron, but he restrained himself and his Son as Fudge spoke up.

"Lucius here made a rather sizeable donation to St Mungo's, so he and his family... and guest, are here by my invitation, Arthur."

"How very... nice." Arthur smiled, obviously strained.

Fudge didn't seem to notice as he turned back to his other guests, including the Bulgarian Minister for Magic. "This is Harry Potter. HARRY POTTER..."

The Bulgarian didn't seem to understand, merely looking confused.

Fudge kept raising his voice, assuming that volume would bridge the language gap apparently, until finally breaking down, "Great Merlin, Man. You have to know Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived?"

That seemed to break through to the Bulgarian, who pointed at Harry and started blabbering excitedly.

Xander thought it was all hilarious, but Harry didn't seem to think much of the attention and tried to curl up into himself. Narcissa noted the reaction with a concerned frown, but said nothing of it as the announcers came on and the opening ceremonies began.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Final of the Four Hundred and Twenty Second Quidditch WORLD CUP!"

The cheering about deafened them where they stood as the crowd surged in response to the words. When it had calmed moderately the announcer came back, introducing the team Mascots.

A sound of singing was overshadowed by Arthur yelping out the word 'Veela', and a sudden blast of lust and obsession roared through Xander's mind.

His reaction was instant, the same thing he'd learned in Sunnydale, his eyes dropping down to his feet as he threw up every shield he could manage, but all it did was mildly blunt the edge of the effect. Beside him he could see Arthur Weasley grab Ron and Harry as they moved to walk off the edge of the platform.

On the other side of him he could see Lucius' iron clad grip holding Draco in place, even as Draco stared down at the ground in much the same manner as he was.

Stop singing. Stop singing. Xander was chanting in his mind, the urge to dance off the edge and fly down to join the Veela almost overpowering. The allure of Marietta Addams only a vague shadow of this one. Just as he managed to order his arms to move enough to block his ears, the song stopped and he was released.

Xander slumped down in his seat, tuning out the world around him as he tried to rebuild his shattered Occlumency defenses. The Veela had traipsed through his mind like wrecking balls, leaving nothing intact in their wake, and it was all he could do to breathe at that moment. It wasn't until several minutes later that he felt himself nudged and managed to turn enough to see Narcissa looking at him in concern.

"Are you alright?"

He nodded slowly, feeling sweat pouring down his face. "Just. Not used to that."

"Few men complain about being enthralled by a Veela," She said with a teasing smile.

"Blew apart my Occlumency shields." Xander grunted out. "I'm wide open again. Just... need some time."

Narcissa's eyes widened, but she just nodded and slipped back.

Blew apart his shields? She couldn't imagine how that could have happened. Even if his shields were new they should have simply collapsed, not been destroyed which is what it sounded like he was implying. She kept an eye on him as the game progressed, and was both impressed and concerned when she recognized his pose as one of meditation.

That was advanced techniques, she knew, especially in a crowd like this. But why in Merlin's name was it necessary?

It was almost a half hour in before Xander opened his eyes again and relaxed, focusing again on the match. By that point the Irish were well in the lead as the play roared around him in a blur. The speed was at least twice that of a Hogwarts game, with every player on Firebolts and all of them pushing the brooms as fast as they could.

Xander was mostly lost through what remained of the match, mostly focusing on keeping the Veela mascots from pillaging through his meager defenses again right up until the final spectacular dive which ended with the snitch in the hand of the Bulgarian, Viktor Krum, and the match ended 160 to 170 in Ireland's favor.

He cheered with the rest, caught up in the moment, but was a little disappointed by having missed so much. Behind him the Twins were hitting up an older man over a bet, but Xander didn't pay much attention as the crowd slowly began to filter out.

Xander collapsed as soon as they made it back to the 'tent', happier than he should be to fall into a bed that early in the day. His shields were rebuilt, but still flimsy, and the internal damage was still raw and painful.

He didn't pay any attention to anything around him and simply closed his eyes.

* * *

When he opened them, hours later, it was to a ruckus coming from outside. He rolled off the luxurious bed and rubbed his eyes. Thankfully he felt tons better to say the least, and his head only had the mildest of aches. He pulled on his pants and boots, then fitted his wands into his belt loops as he through on a light shirt.

As he stepped outside, the sound of screaming and panic coming from a short distance away. He frowned, shaking his head.

"This is why everyone calls me an idiot." He muttered, hand closing around the cool carbon grip of his 'curse' wand.

He drew it in his right hand and moved down the path toward the screams. It didn't take long to find the source, where several men in masks were floating a terrified family around, shooting curses at them randomly.

Xander had always hated bullies, his entire life. Something about them just lit a fire in him, probably originating with how Willow and Jessie were treated when they all met. When the wizards began to spin the youngest of their victims, a boy maybe five years old, like a top and the crowd actually CHEERED, he lost his control.

Xander snapped his wand out straight with a sharp snap.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

The masked men spun around, casting shield charms quickly, but Xander hadn't been aiming at them. The four stunners slapped into the tormented non magicals, shutting them down like the proverbial off switch, and sending them into a blissful stupor.

With their 'toys' shut down the group muttered angrily and turned on Xander even as people ran up to his side.

"Xander!" Hermione gasped, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." He said, eyes not coming off the masked men.

"Why did you curse the muggles?" She huffed, her wand in hand as Ronald and Harry ran up as well.

"Take them out of the equation." Xander said, his offhand yanking the Ollivander wand from his belt as the masked men simply let their victims drop.

"Mobilicorpus!" Her and Hermione shouted as one, catching the two who had been up high enough to get hurt, flicking them all to the side.

"Little children shouldn't play adult games!" One of the masked men snarled, striding in their direction.

"You guys are SICK!" Ron yelled, brandishing his wand threateningly, "Totally sick!"

"Where are the Aurors?" Harry asked, stepping into line with the others, his own wand at the ready. "Aren't they supposed to be here?"

"They're probably trying to keep the Irish from rioting over their victory," Hermione muttered.

"Teach them a lesson," One of the masked men ordered, his voice familiar to the children.

The others began to flick their wands, sending curses flying at the foursome. Xander strode out of line, his curse wand slashing the air as he snarled out his first spell.

"Difindo!"

Again, Protego shields popped into place automatically among the masked men, about half of them shielding the whole group. Xander's spell, again, wasn't aimed at them however. It slashed into the ground in front of him, opening a long gash that went over a foot deep.

"Leviosa!" he followed it up with a flick of his offhand, sheering a huge sheet of sod from the ground and lifting it up like a wave in front of him to intercept the inbound curses.

As they splattered harmlessly off the ground, the trio stepped up to join him where he was now kneeling.

"Bloody brilliant!" Ron muttered, "Where'd you learn this?"

"Standard opening move for a Pride team," Xander said, glancing around. "I can hold this easily, but I can't fire back much."

"Right." Harry nodded, "We can do that. Right guys?"

"Too bloody right," Ron grinned.

Hermione looked scared, but she nodded determinedly and moved to where she could get her wand around the sheet of soil. As Xander held the shield of earth in place with a simple first year levitation charm, the others fired all manners of curses back. Mostly they were nothing but annoying hexes and curses, stuff intended for use by school children, but the occasional stunner, splitter, and other nasty spells had found their way into the trio's repertoire over the years and they now used them with gusto.

Fighting from cover gave the children a considerable advantage, as they were able to hammer their opponents shields mercilessly and slide an occasional curse through when one fell, so it wasn't too long before more than half the masked were suffering from some spell induced ailment and all were angrier than Xander would prefer in armed men trying to curse him.

Because of that it was only a matter of minutes before the first angry scream of "Crucio!" split the air. Xander never saw the spell, but it blew a huge chunk of dirt over him, ripping open a hole the size of his head in the shield they were using.

Hermione gasped, "They're using Unforgivables!"

"Bloody hell!"

Xander shook the dirt off, trying to hold the shield, knowing that the situation had just gone from bad to 'run for your life'. Chayton had given him the rundown on the 'unforgivables', and none of it was good. He didn't stand much of a chance against any of them, Xander knew, even if the masked men were only using them to clear away the shield of dirt.

"Alright, time to get out of here." He called, "Hermione, Harry, Ron, start falling back!"

"What about you!?"

"I've got one more trick!" He snapped, "GO!"

The trio scrambled away as Xander flicked his curse wand, chanting the Leviosa incantation. It wasn't best at charms, but with both wands functioning Xander threw everything he hand into pushing the rolling wave forward ahead of him as he drove toward the men.

He heard panicked calls of Crucio and Avada Kedavra scream out and flinched lower as huge chunks were blown out of his shield, then cut the Leviosa and slashed his curse wand forward in a driving piercing stab.

"Depulso!"

The final spell in the first combo Chayton had taught him was the banishing charm, and it blasted the entire shield wall forward, turning the dirt and stones into projectiles that hammered into the men beyond. Xander had turned even as the spell ended, however, and was running hell bent for the trees.

Behind him the men were digging out as he reached the edge, and he could hear them screaming.

"There he is! Crucio!"

Xander dove for the tree line, hitting the ground in a hard slide as the sky lit up above him and screams roared out, this time screams of real terror. He could hear even the masked men yelling, sounding scared.

One of them pointed at the sky and screamed, "The Dark Mark! Run!"

Then, one by one they popped out as Xander rolled over and stared up at the ugly skull in the sky. He was pretty certain that it had just saved his ass.

"Xander!" Hermione and the others ran over to him, "Are you ok?"

"Just peachy." He muttered, shaking his head. "My mom and dad are gonna kill me. I didn't even make it to school this time before I get in a fight, and they were trying to KILL us!"

* * *

"Well that night sucked." Xander grumbled to himself as he let himself back into the Malfoy tent.

"Please do not tell me you were out in that," Narcissa sighed, looking at the mess he was in.

Xander plucked a leaf out of his hair and shook some more dirt off. "Uh... I wasn't out in that?"

The older woman shook her head, "And from the look of you, I take it you got involved."

"Dumb bastards were torturing people." Xander grumbled, "what kind of person does that, anyway?"

Narcissa sighed, but didn't answer.

"Then they start shooting off unforgivables at me," Xander went on, drawing her attention strongly.

"They WHAT?" Narcissa looked him over quickly. Obviously he hadn't been hit by a killing curse, and he didn't seem to be shaking. "Did they miss?"

"Shield wall absorbed them," Xander shrugged.

She raised an eyebrow, "The last time I checked, no shield could block an unforgiveable."

"Shield Wall." Xander corrected, "Basically a huge slab of dirt held in place by a Leviosa."

"Ah." She said, nodding slowly. Physical objects could generally block even the unforgivables, though generally that was a very advanced conjuration, or the use of handy objects in the immediate area. This sounded a little different, "I don't believe I've heard of that spell."

"Spell combo," Xander said, "Difindo to cut open the ground, Leviosa to lift the sod or slab into position, then when you're ready to move again you use a Depulso to shower it down in the enemy."

Narcissa had to admit, she was impressed. It was a well thought out defense that used two very easy spells to accomplish the majority of its effect. Only the banishing charm was moderately difficult, and that sounded optional to the defense, really. For a first and second year curse/charm combination to be used to block unforgivables was quite neatly done.

That said, she wasn't happy that her charge had been out in that. She had purposely kept Draco busy and away from the crowds for that very reason, but had mistakenly assumed that Xander would sleep through it all.

Sometimes her husband and his friends really had no common sense, let alone any idea of their limitations when drinking.

"You shouldn't have gone out there," She said finally, shaking her head. "However, what is done is done. Were you hit by any curses?"

Xander shook his head, then smirked, "Nope. But those masked men are gonna need some hexes reversed."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow again, "You landed curses on them?"

Xander shook his head, "Nah. I just held the shield wall. Harry, Hermione, and Ronald got em pretty good though."

Narcissa didn't know whether to be impressed, or to want to cry. Drunk or not, a group of several blooded Death Eaters had just been spanked by four school children. She would have to speak quite seriously with her husband about cutting out his drinking, at least with his former comrades. It was obvious that against any significant force they have been massacred, assuming Mr. Harris was telling the truth.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Get to bed, young man. The Aurors have settled things outside, so there should be no more issues."

Xander scowled, not being tired, but she cut him off.

"Get some rest, or do you perhaps need a visit to a Mediwitch to ensure your health?"

Xander grumbled, but got up and headed to bed. She watched him go, then sighed again and headed back to the back entrance of the tent. She crossed the field and entered into the Mulciber tent, where she knew her husband was likely located.

She found him, as expected, with several of his former comrades. And, also as expected, most were suffering from various degrees of spell damage.

Narcissa sighed, shaking her head.

"I hope you got that lunacy out of your system, Husband." She said, her voice chilled as she stressed the last word.

"Not NOW." Lucius muttered, removing a hex from Mulciber.

"Unforgivables? Really?" She ignored him, "Were you so inebriated that you lost your minds?"

"Shut up, bitch." Parkinson growled, glaring at her through eyes that could barely be seen. The massive swelling he was under looked nasty.

"So, did you get that from one of the fourteen year old boys, or the fourteen year old girl who resisted you?" She demanded acerbically.

Lucius, looking sober and worn out now, turned on her. "Are you hear for a reason, woman?"

"I thought you might like the know that the Aurors have arrived back from the Irish camps, and are beginning a tent to tent search." She said, "You may want to hurry up and finish fixing those nasty hexes you suffered from the fourteen year olds you so bravely engaged in mortal combat."

Mulciber glared at her, slurring drunkenly, "The Aurors will do what we tell them."

What my HUSBAND tells them you mean, you imbecile, Narcissa thought dryly. "That might have been true had you geniuses not begun firing unforgivables before one of you set off the Dark Mark. They'll be out for blood now."

"Tha wasn't us!" Mulciber protested.

"Oh, you didn't fire unforgivables are schoolchildren?"

"I meant the Dark Mark. We didna do that."

Narcissa pinched her nose, "So there's yet another genius running around out there? Lovely. I do hope that, should they get caught, they don't know about you lot. Get back to your tents as quickly as you can, and Husband? Sober up before you do. I'll keep them busy as long as I can."

Lucius nodded tiredly, the events of the evening having done enough to burn off his Firewhisky buzz that he didn't really need a sobering potion. Narcissa turned away from them and headed back to her own tent.

* * *

Sirius Black groaned a little at the pounding on the door of his flat, sorry, his apartment. It had been one of those nights, and the last thing he needed was that noise echoing through his skull.

"Coming, coming, please for the love of Merlin stop hammering down the door!" He managed to croak out as he pulled on his pants and stumbled to the door.

"Willow?" He muttered, confused as the redhead pushed past him. "What's up?"

"Oh lord." She scrunched up her nose, "You stink, Sirius. And put on a shirt."

"Sorry, wasn't expecting company this early."

"It's almost noon."

"Yeah. I know."

Willow closed her eyes, counting quickly to ten. She had learned early on that she was really better off treating Sirius much like Jessie, or like Jessie had been when he was eleven or so. Jessie had grown up a little since then.

"I had a call from Xander." She said, "About Harry."

That woke Sirius up, "Is he alright?"

"Put a shirt on."

"But..."

"Now, Mister."

"Fine." Sirius pouted, slinking away.

Willow could hear him grumbling about her keeping information about Harry from him, but ignored it. Her eyes flitted around the room, finally noting a brassier hanging over a chair. She winced and decided not to ask as Sirius came back, tucking a shirt in.

"There? Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

"Now what about Harry?"

"As Sir Harry he's an adult, right?" She asked.

Sirius nodded, "Of course. So, what about him?"

"As an adult he can be challenged to a duel, right?"

Sirius shrugged, "Sure I guess. Was he?"

"Not yet, but there is some concern."

"Why?" Sirius looked genuinely confused. "No one is going to challenge a kid to a duel without really good reason."

Willow stared for a moment, her jaw dropping. "Sirius! Boy Who Lived, remember? He's got more enemies than I would wandering around the streets of Iran!"

"Uh..."

"Jewish girl here?"

"Ok..."

Willow groaned, "never mind. We need to know how worried he should be?"

Sirius shrugged, "Well. You can't just challenge someone to a duel to the death for no reason. So even with enemies, Harry isn't going to be challenged lightly. He'd have to do something, or have a blood feud going with some house..."

"Does he?"

"As Sir Harry of Potter? No." Sirius shrugged, "As regent Black? Maybe, but I doubt any of the Black enemies would want to kill Harry Potter. He should be able to handle any minor duels he may become involved in, I'd expect his dueling training is at least that good."

Willow stared again, "Uh... He hasn't had any training."

"What!?" Sirius looked aghast, "But James was practically a master at his age!"

"Harry here, Not James." Willow said. "Sirius, I know this isn't my business, b... but you talk about him like he was your old friend. H-He's your Godson. They're not the same person."

Sirius looked like he'd been struck dumb for a moment, then slowly sighed.

"Maybe you're right. Ok, I need to call Harry."

"Wait a few more hours," Willow suggested, "Time difference."

Sirius nodded.

"In the meantime I have to go," Willow got up, "And you should see to your guest."

"Huh?"

Sirius followed the nod of her head to where the woman from the night before was leaning in the doorway and paled quickly.

Damndamndamndamn. He thought desperately. What was her name again?


	84. Chapter 84

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After the explosive events of the World Cup, Magical Britain mostly quieted down on the surface at least. For Xander, he got the privilege of watching a parade of Aurors show up to talk with Lucius, mostly leaving with a belt pouch they hadn't arrived with. The chink sound of gold in a leather pouch was distinctive, and even sounded clearly through magical enhancements.

Connecting the dots wasn't the hardest thing to work out, even for Xander who had no experience in such matters at all. He ignored it for the most part, however, since there wasn't anything he could do about it.

For Harry, back with the Weasley's, things went far quieter than for Xander. All he could do was listen to the rumors for the most part, and fly brooms with Ron.

Mostly at least.

He did take advantage of the Knight Bus tutorial he'd received from Xander to visit Diagon a couple times when the Weasley's thought he was out for a walk. He'd needed to visit Gringotts in order to take full control of his account.

Taking control of the Potter account was a bit of an eye opener. He'd known that he was pretty well off, but it was apparent that his trust vault was just a piece of the pie. Most of his assets were in property, but he found that he had roughly five million pounds worth of liquid assets, and twice that in investments. The investments were a bit of a worry, however, since some of them had dovetailed in the last few years, untended by his family, losing over twenty million pounds in the years since his parents had died.

Harry had wanted to take up the Goblins on their offer to tend the account, but remembered Xander's advice to never make a deal with the Goblins unless he was confident he knew what he was doing. So he decided to leave the investments as they were, figuring that things weren't going to get much worse in the next few months.

His portfolio was a magically expanded book the likes of which he'd never seen before, and Harry was resigned to a lot of reading before he could make much of them.

Sirius had contacted him, and Harry learned that the threat of duels wasn't as bad as he'd been envisioning, but he had to do some work anyway. Sirius had recommended talking to professor Flitwick at school, and also just plainly practicing with his friends as long as they had supervision.

That meant starting some sort of dueling club, Harry supposed. The first time he'd seen that it hadn't turned out spectacularly well. He'd have to think about it, maybe Hermione would have an answer to the problem. For the moment, though, he was almost entirely isolated from the Wizarding World, so it shouldn't be a problem for the foreseeable future. Duels couldn't be issued at Hogwarts, not to the death anyway, and the rest of the year he was a recluse.

So he had time.

He just needed to make the most of it.

* * *

The day of the Hogwarts Express was on them almost before they knew it, the summer gone by and school almost ready to start again. On that day Xander and Harry ran into each other again for the first time since that night in the camp ground.

They just nodded to one another as Hermione greeted Xander with a hug, and Molly Weasley fussed over her whole family, Harry included. Xander heard her telling them not to open their special packages until they got to Hogwarts, saying it was a secret, but he wasn't paying attention.

Instead he was smiling as he noted a dark shadow passing through the crowd like a hot night through butter. People turned and moved away from its source without thinking, and Xander envied her for that ability.

"Wednesday." he said, wiping the smile from his face.

"Alexander." She responded, hefting a familiar furry shape in his direction, "I believe that this belongs with you."

"Hey Fenrir." Xander accepted the hefty pup. Fenrir had grown over the years, but as It had predicted the growth rate seemed tied to Xander's own, with the pup being roughly the size it would be at four years old in human terms. From what he gathered, Xander expected Fenrir to be at its full growth at some point when Xander reached his mid-twenties.

Of course, as he'd already seen, Fenrir had a magical form that was immensely powerful and quite large.

"How was it with the mean old Addams'?" Xander asked, eyes laughing as he glanced up at Wednesday, who merely raised an eyebrow. "Did you get to eat any postmen?"

The dog yipped at him, causing Xander to laugh.

"Please." Wednesday rolled her eyes, "The postman never comes close enough to be eaten. Not after the last three, anyway."

Xander chuckled, though he was far from convinced that she was joking. "Thanks for taking care of him."

"It was no trouble." She said simply, "Did you have a good time at the match?"

Xander smirked slightly, imagining the reaction from Harry or Ron at the World Cup being reduced to a mere 'match'. "Aside from the bitch of a headache from the Veela blasting my shields, it was pretty cool. What happened after was interesting though."

"Oh?"

Xander nodded and told her about it as they moved along the tracks to the door of the train. Wednesday was almost sad at missing the fun, he rather thought. He was somewhat sad she'd missed it to, in all truth. He'd love to have seen what she pulled out of her familial bag of tricks to torment the masked twits with.

The boarded quickly, finding themselves a compartment, and settled in for the ride.

"So," Wednesday said as she fed Odin something Xander rather didn't want to get too close a look at, "The Hogwarts letter this year was slightly odd."

"The dress robes?"

Wednesday tilted her head, "A gown, actually. For me, anyway."

Xander nodded, "Yule ball."

"Indeed? Why?"

"Something called the Tri Wizard Tournament." Xander shrugged, "Lucius let Draco in on it, Mrs. Malfoy told me. Going to be a big deal this year, I guess."

"Ah. I suppose it may be interesting."

* * *

In another car, Ron was complaining. "What do you suppose that was all about?"

Harry shrugged, though he was pretty sure he had a good idea.

Ron didn't really pay attention to him anyway, instead tearing open the package his mum had told him not to open until Hogwarts.

"Blimey!" He muttered. "Look at this!"

Harry looked over and winced as some of the ugliest robes he'd ever seen in his life were hanging from Ron's hand.

"Mum's flipped her lid. When am I going to wear this?"

"Honestly, Ron," Hermione rolled her eyes, "It was written in the letter, clear as day. We're required to have formal wear this year."

"What? WHY!?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

Ron whimpered a little, looking at the frilly purple robes. "I can't wear this!"

Harry sympathized with his friend. They were hideous robes.

"Open yours," Ron said, nodding to Harry.

Harry shrugged, knowing that he wouldn't be wearing them either way, and did as he was bade.

"Those aren't too bad," Ron said, "They look kinda good. How come I got... oh."

Ron slumped, looking depressed.

Harry figured out what Ron was thinking and made a decision. "I should have told your mum not to get me any."

"Why not?" Ron asked.

"Alright, have them." Harry said, glancing at Hermione. "Right?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, they were delivered to me, I have them in my trunk."

"You want these?" Harry asked, offering the ones Mrs. Weasley had bought him. "I'm not going to wear them."

Ron looked at them longingly, but visibly held himself back before sighing. "Better not. Mum got me these, and yours won't fit me anyhow."

"So get them resized." Harry shrugged, "Parvati and Lavender know the spells, right Hermione?"

"They're pretty good at it, actually."

"There." Harry tossed the package over. "Those are yours, I'm never gonna wear them."

"You're sure?" Ron asked, his voice tinging with a slight hint of hope.

Harry smiled, "I had a bit of unfair warning, Ron. I knew we'd need these, so I got a set tailored."

"Who told you?"

"Xander." Harry shrugged, "He found out from Malfoy. I'd have told you, but I thought your Dad would have mentioned it. Besides, things got kinda hyped up when I got to the Burrow."

Ron looked glumly at the robes, "You're sure you don't need em?"

"Absolutely. I swear, Ron, if you don't wear em I may as well give them to the Creeveys or something." Harry said, exaggerating. There was no way in hell he was giving anything to Colin or Dennis. They'd probably frame it and put it on display or something.

"Honestly, Ron. Just say thank you." Hermione said with a smile and roll of her eyes, "And save us all from the horror of you prancing around Hogwarts in that purple... thing."

Harry couldn't help it, he snickered, which set off Hermione. In turn that set him off, and before long they were laughing loudly as Ron looked on, hurt. Well, he tried to look hurt. One look at the purple monstrosity convinced him that it was actually pretty funny and he joined in.

"Alright, alright. Thanks, Harry. I WILL pay you back." Ron promised, "but thanks."

Harry waved it off, "Ron. You've been my friend through all kinds of insanity, and I think it's a fair bet that more of the same is coming. You have my back, and I have yours. I don't really need to keep track of anything more than that. If you want to, well that's your choice. But for me? You earned those robes and more when you cast your first Wingardium Leviosa."

Ron didn't look convinced, but was willing to let it drop as the train sped on its way to Hogwarts.

* * *

Harry and the others looked up when the door to the compartment opened, half expecting Draco to be making his biannual threats on the express. Harry was surprised to see that it was Ginny with her friend in tow, though he was having a difficult time remembering the friend's name.

Luna. That was it.

"Hey," Ginny said, "Do you mind if we sit here? Things are a little too exciting out there."

"Not at all," Harry shrugged, glancing at the other two, "But what do you mean, exciting?"

"Draco is running around as usual, and some of the Ravenclaws are tormenting Luna." Ginny shrugged as she dropped into a seat.

"Why?"

Luna shrugged in response, "I think it's a Tremlwart infestations."

Harry stared, but honestly couldn't come up with a response to that and so he just nodded slowly before turning back to his book.

"What are you reading?" Ginny asked him.

"Huh? Oh, it's just a property ledger." He answered. "I got it from the Goblins, just a list of Potter properties. There's a surprising amount of them."

"Wow. I guess you could sell them for a lot, then, huh?" Ginny said.

"Nah. Most are entailed, apparently. The family owns them, but they're locked up in one way or another." Harry said, not really caring much.

"Really?" Hermione blinked, "That's strange, isn't it? How do you mean?"

"Well, there's this one property in London that's under permanent lease to the government." Harry said, "There's another in France that is entailed for the use of a monastic order for so long as they choose to remain. They've been there for five hundred years, so I'm guessing they're not going to move to more modern locations anytime soon. And there's this one in Tasmania that's a little confusing. I guess it's a chunk of the country that was warded out before colonial settlers moved in, so while I own it it's not on any land registries or anything."

"Tasmania, really?" Luna perked up, looking over.

Harry nodded, "Yeah. Potter Plantation. Big chunk of land, over a thousand square miles, including several islands. I guess it's a magical preserve, but the place looks kinda run down."

"You have pictures?" Luna slid over, "may I?"

"Sure." Harry showed her the pictures, magical images of the plantation home. "See all the holes in the walls?"

"Oh those were caused by the Tasmanian devils. Your wards must be failing." Luna said quickly.

Hermione squawked.

Harry looked over, "Hermione? Are you ok?"

"I'm... fine." She said, taking a breath and glaring at Luna. "Luna Lovegood, you know as well as I do that the Tasmanian devil is hardly going to go around blowing holes in walls. It's just a small animal that's nearly extinct."

Luna shook her head, smiling tolerantly. "Hermione, the Tasmanian Devil is a magical creature that can spin like a dervish and chew through almost anything. Everyone knows that."

Hermione looked at Ginny and Ron, who just looked totally confused, then blew her top. "You're talking about a CARTOON!"

"What's a cartoon?" Luna asked, looking befuddled.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Xander asked, looking up.

"What?" Wednesday glanced around.

"Sounded like Hermione screaming."

"And how, pray tell, are you so familiar with the sound of her screaming?" Wednesday asked, one eyebrow raised.

Xander smirked, "new hobby."

She stared at him evenly for a moment, "Explain."

"What? A guy can't have a hobby?" Xander asked, grinning.

Wednesday just stared at him until he began to shift in his seat and finally gave up out of self-preservation.

"Alright, yeesh. I just figured out that Hermione doesn't relax near enough," Xander said with a weak chuckle, "Do a few little things and she lets it all build until she blows her top. It's fun trying to figure out exactly when she's gonna go off."

"And just what did you do this time to get her to 'blow her top'?" Wednesday asked with a slight shake of her head.

"Nothing actually." Xander said, a little confused. "That one wasn't one of mine."

"I see." Wednesday said, rising as she noted a shift in the feel of the train. "Well there is no time to investigate now, we're arriving."

* * *

The train deposited them all at the Hogsmeade station and they were all soon bundled off into their carriages, or boats for the first years, and trundled along into the school. For Xander it was what had become a yearly tradition, but for Harry it was a home coming.

He looked at the castle walls as they loomed ahead and felt comfortable for the first time since he'd left in the fall, a feeling that even the warmth of the Burrow couldn't quite replicate. They were soon all packed into their seats in the great hall, and watched as the hat was carried out and the firsties led in for the sorting.

Xander settled into his seat at the Slytherin table, eyes roving the assembled students and professors, and he noted idly that there was an open slot at the teachers table. He leaned in Daphne's direction, "We missing a teach?"

Her eyes flicked in the same direction, and the blond girl shrugged, "It would seem that the Headmaster has had difficulty finding a defense teacher again this year."

Xander nodded, having guessed as much himself. "Imagine that, huh? One dies, one terrorizes the countryside, and whatever happened to Lockhart anyway?"

Xander suddenly felt a pang of guilt, he never had found out what happened the twit.

"You didn't hear?" Daphne hissed, sounding surprised. "They found him wandering the catacombs under the school, babbling about coming clean about his books. The dolt confessed to the headmaster on sight, apparently he's been obliviating people and stealing their stories for his books. The ministry's been spending a lot of man hours tracking down all his victims since. He got five years in Azkaban."

"Only five?"

"Obliviation isn't a huge crime," She shrugged, "As long as you're good enough at it to make it reversible. I guess he was good at one spell, after all. He'll be poor as a pauper when he gets out, though. Lawyers have been lining up to sue him and his publisher ever since."

"Whoa." Xander said, "anyway, I wonder who's gonna take over the catastrophe class this year?"

Daphne just smirked and said nothing as they turned back to the sorting.

Getting the firsties in line didn't take much longer, and before long (but after Dumbledore's requisite nonsensical words) they were digging into the opening feast with gusto. About halfway through, however, there was a loud BOOM, followed by a couple softer bangs, and the doors flew open.

The man who walked in, assuming it was a man because Xander was far from certain of that, was one of the most horribly scarred pictures anyone in the hall had ever seen. He was missing an eye and a leg, both replaced by prosthetics, and he thumped determinedly across the hall.

"Th..." Daphne stammered, whispering in near terror. "That's Mad Eye Moody."

"What?" Xander hissed back, eyes not coming off the man.

"He's a Master Auror." Blaise said, entering the conversation. "Retired of course. Killed more death eaters and, by extension, purebloods than anyone else in the last war."

Now, Xander hadn't asked 'who'. He'd asked 'what', he was fully aware of who Mad Eye Moody was from his studies on the wars. The former Auror had started his career in the Grindlewald War, earning a fearsome reputation akin to the likes of Audie Murphy on the non-magical side of the battles. Xander knew all about him, he was just surprised the man was still alive. By all references, he'd been left for dead in an ambush just before the war ended, with no further references to his existence after Harry'd supposedly iced Moldy.

Which was why he answered Blaise's statement with a correction, not even thinking about his statement. "Second most kills, most captures."

"Excuse me?" Blaise quietly glared at him.

"One thing all the histories of the war agree on," Xander said, "Moody ranks number two for kills."

"Who, pray tell, do they credit for number one?"

"The Dark Lord." Xander replied dryly. "Last going off he was supposedly offing his own people like a lunatic."

"Propaganda." Blaise snorted.

"Maybe, but even the pro pureblood stories hint at it," Xander shrugged. "None of them really have any idea why. But the list of names dead by his hand are confirmed by post war interrogations."

The two purebloods glanced at each other, uneasily falling silent as they watched Moody converse with Dumbledore and then, with growing horror, walked around the table and took a seat.

"I guess we have our catastrophe class professor," Xander said dryly.

"We're doomed." Daphne moaned softly.

The feast ended quickly, a somber tone having fallen over the hall, and the Headmaster rose up to give his announcements.

"To begin with," He said gravely, though the tone was belied by the twinkle in his eye, "The forbidden forest remains just that, forbidden. Mr. Filch wishes me to remind you all that magic is not permitted in the halls, and as with every year the list of contraband materials not allowed in Hogwarts may be found posted to his office door."

The old man smiled a little now, moving on.

"Our new Professor for Defense against the Dark Arts is Alastor Moody, an old friend of mine that I hope you will all welcome warmly..."

"Like hell that'll happen..." Draco hissed, glaring at the scarred professor.

Most of the Slytherin's murmured in agreement as polite applause echoed around the hall, including scattered clapping from their table. They glared darkly at those who dared, including Xander, who just rolled his eyes and hissed back at him.

"What? The guy's a legendary cop and soldier. I *want* to see what he can teach."

The minor drama at the Slytherin table was ignored as the Headmaster went on.

"Sadly, it is my duty to inform you all that this year, Quidditch has been canceled."

"WHAT!?" That single word was torn from several throats which included, amusingly to Xander, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.

They didn't seem to notice their union in their righteous cause, and went on to yell that they couldn't cancel Quidditch. The Headmaster, however, did notice if the amused gleam in his eye was any indication and he actually took a moment to suppress a chuckle before continuing.

"As I was saying," He went on, almost but not quite laughing, "This year, instead, Hogwarts has the honor of playing host to the Tri Wizard Tournament."

"You're JOKING!" The Weasley Twins blurted out in shock.

Now the headmaster did laugh, "I assure you that I am not. This ancient competition has existed between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang for centuries, though we had until recently refrained from holding one due to... an unfortunate series of deaths that left the last such contest with no survivors."

The hall fell deathly quiet.

"Which is why this year we will be using an age line that I will personally administer to prevent anyone under the age of seventeen from entering."

Dumbledore smiled around at the school before continuing.

"Now, before I send you off to your beds, I want to wish you the warmest of welcomes to this new and exciting year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."


	85. Chapter 85

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Hermione Granger was confused.

This wasn't as odd a situation as one might think, not that she would admit it to anyone. She was often confused, and when that happened she spent time in the library until she was no longer confused.

Hermione Granger spent a lot of time in the library.

This time, however, there was no savior to be found in the books. Everything she could find on House Elves was just utterly abhorrent. Not only were the poor things nothing more than slaves, there wasn't even any hint of them every being anything else or desiring anything more.

It was disgusting on levels beyond anything she'd ever seen.

It was in this state that she was joined by her normal study partners.

"You appear vexed." Wednesday said as she took a seat.

"She looks pissed." Xander countered, grinning easily as he flopped down into his own.

Hermione looked between them, eyes flaring, "Have you two heard about house elves?"

Wednesday cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing as Xander shrugged.

"What? The little guys who handle the food and everything here in school?"

"You KNEW?" Hermione hissed, her voice shifting to near murderous in intensity.

Xander straightened up, eyeing her more seriously. "Knew what? They're cool little guys. What about it?"

"They're slaves!" She hissed, glaring at him, "We're supporting a slave culture."

"Huh." Xander said.

"Huh? That's all you have to say?" Hermione shook her head, "We have to do something."

"Weird. The little guys didn't seem unhappy."

"They're slaves, Xander," Hermione said, "of course they're unhappy."

"One does not necessarily follow the other," Wednesday retorted calmly. "Most slaves today are quite satisfied with their lot in life."

"What slaves?" Hermione looked puzzled. "There are more slaves in the magical world?"

"I meant non magical slaves in Britain and America."

Hermione's eyes widened, "Non magical? Wednesday Addams, The United States and Great Britain don't keep slaves."

"I suppose that depends on your point of view," Wednesday shrugged, "Hordes of uneducated, largely ignorant, minimum wage workers who have no opportunities other than another dead end job qualifies as slaves in my opinion."

"They can choose to go to school!"

"Most aren't taught how to learn, or are unable to learn for various reasons. And even if they did, it would only gain them a mere improvement in their status to moderately more valuable slaves." The Addams girl shrugged.

"Some people do far better than that," Hermione defended her position.

"And some Gladiators in ancient Rome grabbed the Brass Ring, what's your point?"

Hermione gaped, uncertain how to respond.

"Actually, I rather suspect that compared to housing and feeding a slave proper, paying minimum wage is likely less expensive a proposition for most employers." Wednesday continued thoughtfully.

"I doubt it," Xander said, considering it with some amusement, "You're forgetting the power of numbers. Caring for one slave would probably cost more, caring for a million though?"

"True. I can see the McDonalds Slave Barracks now," Wednesday smiled slightly.

"Gives a whole new meaning to over one million served." Xander smirked.

"Fine," Hermione cut in, "Never mind that. I'm not going to argue semantics with you. The point is that Hogwarts is served by *slaves*!"

"Are they mistreated?" Wednesday asked.

"Are you saying that slavery is alright if we're nice about it?"

"Hardly, Slavery is morally bankrupt. It violates the only truly important thing we have." Wednesday said.

"And that is?"

"Our right to free will." The dark girl said evenly.

"So you agree, we have to do something about the house elves," Hermione said triumphantly.

"No, I ask again, are they unhappy?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Xander spoke up softly, "One can no more free a slave than one can enslave a free man."

"What?" Hermione blinked, set back slightly.

"Precisely," Wednesday smiled.

"It's something my great uncle told me." Xander said, "When we were talking about the Civil War in the US. He told me that slavery really only lasted as long as the Slaves were content with their position. They didn't have to be happy, just content."

"There's nothing to be contented about!"

Xander shrugged, "For me and you? No. There isn't. For slaves in early America, well, they came from a Slave culture. They were sold to traders by their own people, or other traders. It was expected, a part of their lives. Most were treated as semi valuable property in the states, which was better than they got in Africa as a rule. So, they were content. If you're in hell and someone offers to turn down the flames a few notches, it seems like a good deal."

"You can't really believe that slaves in the United States had a good deal!?"

Xander glared sharply at her, "No, I don't. But you're missing the point. If the house elves are happy, there's nothing you can do short of trying to make them *unhappy*."

"Dobby wasn't happy." Hermione blurted, grasping at straws.

"Who's that?"

"He used to be the Malfoy's house elf." Hermione said, "He was mistreated badly, he wanted to be free."

"Well, there's your disaffected slaves." Xander said with a shrug, "Don't worry about Hogwarts until they ask you for help. Find the ones who are already free in their minds, but still wearing chains."

"Breaking chains is always easier than changing minds." Wednesday nodded slightly.

Hermione fell silent, still confused, but thinking more than reading now.

Xander took that as the end of the conversation and turned his focus back to his notes and the books he pulled from the shelves. He'd been toying with the idea of the two way mirror a bit, thinking that maybe he could add a small one to the spell phones and get video conferences of sorts with it.

It sounded good, but the more he thought about it the less he liked the idea really. Oh, he wasn't totally ruling it out, but he really couldn't think of any good reason to use picture to picture communication compared to straight voice. Especially not on a devise as compact as a spell phone.

Now on a larger screen, Xander smirked, he could get someone to hold it up to a TV or something and then maybe he wouldn't be so far behind the decent shows and movies now.

That thought pulled him up, and suddenly he started scribbling furiously on the paper.

Damn it! Why hadn't he thought of that EARLIER?

"Xander?"

He paused in his writing, and looked up to see that Hermione had come out of her fugue and was looking at him curiously.

"What is it?"

"I just remembered something I wanted to ask you," She said hesitantly.

"What?"

"That night, in the campground," Hermione hesitated, looking a little embarrassed. "Did... Did I see you use two wands?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Why?"

Hermione gaped at him. She'd been so sure she had been wrong, that somehow he was doing something else. "But... but that's impossible!"

"Uh... No it's not?" Xander countered, confused.

"You can't use two wands, Xander." Hermione lectured, "It's well recorded that matched wands conflict badly with other wands."

"Oh, yeah, I know." Xander nodded, "My graphite wand works for anyone, though, about the same as it does for me. It's kind of a universal wand. Not as good as a matched wand, really, but a lot less finicky. Learned that while training with Chayton, come to think of it he looked pretty surprised too. Anyway, anyone can use one of my carbon wands like I did. No big deal."

Hermione slumped in her seat.

No big deal.

He had just destroyed one of the rules of magic, and it was no big deal.

What was he going to do next? Apparate into Hogwarts?

"You were able to use both in a real fight?" Wednesday asked mildly.

Xander shrugged, but nodded.

"I am impressed." She conceded.

"I can't aim for crap with my left hand, but I can shield a bit and use intent spells decently." Xander said.

Wednesday nodded, understanding. Shields and Intent spells were largely unaffected by the need to aim, since the former tended to simply protect a single spot relative to the wielder or wand, and the latter was actually targeted by the desire and intent of the caster. The spell literally was WILLED to hit, and usually did. For offhand use, they were the ideal starting points.

"You will be practicing your aim, of course?" She said, ordering more than asking.

Xander nodded, "Yeah. Have to, really. Chayton told me he'd string me up if I didn't improve over the winter."

"Excellent." Wednesday replied, "Rest assured, Alexander... Should he attempt to do so,"

"Yeah?" Xander glanced over, smiling curiously.

"I will aid him."

Xander pulled back, gulping. "Ah, right. K."

Threat delivered, Wednesday turned back to her own work.

Xander shifted uncomfortably, eyes flicking between his book and his companions, his focus now shattered.

Hermione was again lost in a turmoil of thought, ranging from the rules of magic to the plight of the Wizarding House Elf.

Wednesday, for her part, was once more delving into a book on an ancient ritual now banned as hopelessly dark. She'd been able to locate it deep in the restricted section of the library, where it had survived countless attempts to purge Hogwarts references of all things questionable.

In her first year, Wednesday had discovered that Hogwarts protected its knowledge as it did its students. Jealously and with extreme prejudice against those who would harm either. It was not always successful, but the old school never failed to try.

It was then that she knew she had made the right decision in coming there, and since then she had not been proven wrong.

* * *

For Harry James Potter, the return to Hogwarts normally signified something of a rebirth. In his mind, the old Castle was more than just his home. It was the place he'd shed his old life, the fantasy of a childhood he'd almost forgotten. In effect, it was everything he'd ever been afraid to wish for when living at the Dursleys.

This year, however, he had a few things weighing on his mind.

For one, well for more than one if he were to be honest, this whole Knight thing was a totally mind twisting concept. It had made him realize, even more than he had before, that he knew nothing of his family. Forget, just for a moment, his Mum and Dad. He knew nothing of the Potter's, or the Evans.

NOTHING!

He wasn't even sure how that was possible! Four years into his life in the Magical world, and he'd learned more about his magical heritage from an AMERICAN than any of his parent's friends had ever told him. On the muggle side of things, he'd spent his entire life in a house with his Aunt, and never heard her say more than a few words about her own family.

Not even to Dudley.

Harry just didn't know what to think of it all. On the one hand, it did seem a little farfetched that no one would speak of his family to him, but on the other hand seeing a conspiracy in the events seemed even harder to believe.

In the end, he supposed that he had only himself to blame. While he had hungered for information about his parents, he hadn't actively pursued it with anyone except for Hagrid and the Headmaster. Hagrid, bless him, wasn't except the most reliable of people as Harry well knew and occasionally took advantage of, and the Headmaster… Well, sometimes the less said there the better. This seemed to be the headmaster's motto, in Harry's opinion.

So, really, it was his fault and he had to own up to it. He had more information now, at least, and was slowly digging through it all. Much of the data from Gringotts was dry as the Sahara, of course, but even it told a story.

His father had been well enough off to not need to work at anything he didn't enjoy, some would say he didn't need to work at all in fact. Harry wasn't sure of that, a few million pounds sounded like a lot, but when you had a family to think of into the next generation and beyond, he didn't think that wasting money for no reason was the way to go.

And, so too thought his parents, as far as he could tell. His father had been an Auror, one of the youngest Master Aurors ever before his death. Of course, this was during a time of war, so promotions were quick to be had. His Mother, she had been a researcher it seemed. Harry wasn't sure, the details on her work were pretty much unavailable.

What it all spelled out, though, was just how ignorant he really was. It was, sadly, not an unusual revelation for Harry. He still remembered the humiliation he felt when his teacher realized that he couldn't read properly at age nine.

She couldn't have known why, but then even he didn't really understand why until he'd met Hermione. He was entirely self-taught in many aspects of his education, not because the teachers hadn't tried but because you could only learn so much in class. Most of your real education as a child was from the time you spent living and playing with your peers, watching TV, even reading borrowed books from the library. These were all things that Harry had never had.

He'd worked damned hard since then to fill in that gap, and yet at age 10 it became clear that his mathematics knowledge was similarly crippled. So he spent that year using a smuggled pencil to scribble out the multiplication tables on the wall of his cupboard over and over until he had them down and moved on to the next step.

Since coming to the magical realm Harry had determined that he wasn't drowning in an ocean that his peers had already learned to swim in, and he'd been satisfied with his results. Certainly he was far from the worst in the school, normally his marks were significantly higher than Ron's after all and Ron wasn't failing or anything.

And now what does he find out? Xander has been inventing magical stuff for almost the entire three years he'd been here, despite not having marks any better than his own! If it weren't for the Marauder's Map and the Coven Grimoire, Harry would have let it pass though. His parents had more in common with an American than they did with him.

It was another one of those moments that Harry had come to associate with the word 'watershed', a point in his life where he knew that he had to make a change, or he wouldn't be able to look himself in the mirror again. He fancied himself as one of the best in his year in Defence Against the Dark Arts, the best in practical to be clear, and only just behind Hermione in terms of knowledge. And yet he'd been totally outclassed by the performance of Xander at the fight in the campground, or at least that's how he felt.

Harry sighed.

He was starting to sound like Ron now, and not in any of Ron's good aspects either. He pushed down that sort of thinking, knowing that it would do him no good to be jealous of someone who had worked to achieve what they had. If he wanted to redeem himself in his own eyes, he just had to get to work.

First, though, he needed to see if he could get a little help and so he pulled out the Marauder's Map and quickly located his quarry.

* * *

Xander thought that he really needed to look into enchanting books.

Finding his ideas in the chicken scratch of his notebooks was just getting to be insane. He'd just realized that it was becoming disheartening, trying to find the stuff he'd thought were great ideas just a few months earlier.

He was still puzzling over that when Harry came quietly over to the table he shared with Hermione and Wednesday.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione smiled, "Can I help you with anything?"

"Uh, no Hermione, actually I wanted to speak with Xander." Harry said, looking a little nervously.

Xander looked up, surprised, and even Wednesday looked up from her book with what passed for surprise on her face.

"Sure." Xander shrugged, "What's up mate?"

Harry sighed, taking a seat, "I need some help."

"This is hardly news." Wednesday replied dryly.

Hermione shot her a dirty look while Xander smothered a snicker, but Harry looked about ready to curl up and try and hide in his own shadow.

"What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry sighed, obviously steeling himself. He really wasn't the sort who liked to ask for help, it was one of the things he had in common with Ron, to be truthful.

"Do you think you could practice with me sometime?" Harry asked, looking across as Xander. "I mean, dueling and stuff."

Xander was a little surprised, but only a little. Harry had been hit with a lot of stuff in the past few weeks, and he guessed that this was just the results of all of it now coming to the surface. He shrugged, "I guess. We'd have to find a place, though."

Harry frowned, but nodded. "An old classroom? There are tons of them."

"Yeah, maybe." Xander shrugged, thinking about his recent conversation with Hermione, "You know what, let's ask the Elves."

"Huh?"

"The Hogwarts Elves," Xander clarified, "They'll know if there's a good place, they've been here forever I think."

"Hardly forever, Xander." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Longer than all of us put together, which is close enough for me." Xander smirked back.

"Oh honestly."

Xander looked back at Harry, "you know, I'm no teacher, mate. You're going to have to work a lot harder than even I had to, to get this stuff, cause you're going to be doing it mostly on your own."

Harry nodded, "That's fine. I'm willing to work."

"Now that is a fact that surprises me." Wednesday made her second comment of the conversation.

"Wednesday," Xander smiled chidingly. "You hardly know the guy."

"How often have you seen him in the library, Alexander?" She calmly countered. "He is a prodigy, this I will not dispute. However I have yet to see him work for anything he has."

"Hey!" Harry growled, "I worked damn hard on my Patronus."

Wednesday eyed him for a long, tense moment. Then shrugged, "Perhaps. In any case, I wish you luck Alexander. I hope you don't need it."

With those words, Wednesday began to pack up her books. "For now, however, I have things to do. I'll see you tomorrow, Alex, Hermione. Good Day, Mr. Potter."

The trio watched as Wednesday walked away, Hermione looking embarrassed by the scene as Harry had flushed a little angrily.

"Is she always like that?" He asked in a quiet hiss.

Xander shrugged, "She's Wednesday."

That was all he said as he packed up his own books.

"Are you leaving?" Hermione asked, sounding worried.

"Going down to the kitchens." He said, "Let's see if we can't find an old dueling room or something."

Harry nodded and got up quickly as Hermione looked torn between them and her books.

Xander smiled, "Don't worry about it. We'll let you know what we find out."

She nodded, relieved. She really had a lot more to do, and didn't want to get behind in her school work because of her side projects. She watched the two leave before turning back to her research in House Elves.

* * *

The way to the kitchens was clear, though Xander checked it carefully against his map as they went. Harry noted it and shook his head.

"So it's true, you made one of those last year."

Xander nodded, "Yeah. Useful."

"I know, I've got my Dad's." Harry admitted.

Xander smirked, "Yeah. I know."

Harry chuckled a bit, "You know, I know, huh? At the start of first year if you'd told me I'd be sneaking around Hogwarts with a Slytherin I'd have thought you were bonkers."

"At the end of first year, I wouldn't have been sure you weren't bonkers anyway." Xander replied, then mused thoughtfully, "You know, I'm not sure you're not even today. You sure do manage to get in some insane spots."

"That's not my fault!" Harry hissed defensively.

"Yeah, yeah." Xander chuckled. "Here we are. The kitchens."

Harry rolled his eyes, but checked around for anyone watching as Xander unsealed the door and they slid inside.


	86. Chapter 86

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The Room of Requirement.

Xander looked around, trying not to gap and failing miserably in the attempt. It wasn't so bad, though, Harry was pretty much doing the same while his little Elf friend grinned madly at them.

"Dobby do good, Oh Great Harry Potter, Sir?"

Harry was still gaping, like Xander, but he managed to nod. "Yeah. Dobby did good."

"I think Dobby did bloody brilliant," Xander said, slowly smiling, "To borrow a phrase from this side of the Atlantic."

The room had appeared as Xander envisioned when he paced in front of the wall according to the elf's instructions. It had formed a regulation dueling environment, paced out to fifty meters on the side with lines chalked out carefully on the ground. Xander walked the course carefully for a moment, noting that it was even better than the field he'd trained at back in Cali, obviously lifted straight from the book he'd read on Pride training facilities.

"This is some freaky room." He said, shaking his head. "Scary."

"Why?" Harry asked, coming up beside him.

"Man, I don't know about you, but I've been getting creeped out by mind readers lately." Xander said, sighing. "I've got no defenses to speak of, and I really hate the idea of anyone dancing across my brain pan."

"Mind readers?" Harry was confused.

"Legilimens," Xander said, "It's a magical technique used to read minds. Not common, but not rare either."

Harry shuddered, grimacing. "People just barge around in your head?"

"Probably happened to us already, I'd bet." Xander said, sighing. "You ever notice how the Headmaster just kind of looks at you and seems to know everything?"

"He wouldn't!" Harry blurted, shocked, "Right?"

Xander shrugged, "Don't know. Can't prove it. But if anyone in this school can do it, He's top on the list."

"What about the other professors?" Harry asked, thinking furiously. "Snape?"

Xander raised an eyebrow, then shrugged again, "Don't know. Anyway, we're getting off track here. The point was I get a little creeped out by mind readers now, even mind reading rooms."

Dobby, who had been looking back and forth between them as they talked, spoke up. "Oh, Come and Go Room not read minds, Castle does."

"And that is even creepier." Xander replied dryly, glancing down at the little elf.

"What do you mean, Dobby?" Harry asked gently.

Dobby pulled at his ears, debating what to say exactly, but finally went on. "Castle is old, very old. Older than Wizards know. Was here before founders, will be here after all today are forgotten."

"Before the founders?" Harry blurted, "How that possible? I thought they built it?"

Dobby shook his head wildly, still tugging at his ears.

"Huh. Cool." Xander said.

Harry looked over at him, rolling his eyes, "That's all you have to say about it?"

Xander shrugged, "Makes a twisted kinda sense, you know? Hogwarts is magical in ways that even Three Angels doesn't match, and that place is powered by some massive magical convergences. You can feel the raw power in California, dude, here it's damn near as powerful… but more refined I guess."

A thrum of power swept through the room, stiffening both young wizards for a moment.

Dobby nodded, "Castle agrees, asks please not to be telling people. Dobby wouldn't have told, but Castle likes Harry Potter Sir."

"Don't worry Dobby, we won't tell anyone." Harry said, smiling at the small elf before looking over to Xander, "Right?"

Xander shrugged again, "Who would I tell, and more importantly, why? Would probably get some historians excited, I guess, but other than that there's probably not a dozen people on the planet who'd care to be honest."

Harry scowled at him, "Even I know it's huge news, Xander."

"Yeah, but what use is it?" Xander grinned, "Dumbles might be able to make something of it, and maybe Mold in his Shorts. Past that? Name one person who would care beyond historical curiosity."

"Hermione. Wednesday." Harry listed two.

Xander flinched, "Ouch. You've got a point. Those two would flay me alive if they found out I was holding out something like this. You sure we can't tell them?"

A second, low toned thrum of power reverberated through the room and Dobby start dancing around from foot to foot.

"Alright, alright, I was just asking." Xander said defensively. "Yeesh. Old fart of a castle's got no sense of humor."

"And you seem to lack some rather basic notions of self-preservation," Harry countered, smirking.

"Says the guy who hears 'Sixty Foot Basilisk' and charges AT the damn thing." Xander muttered.

"I seem to remember someone else in the room being right there beside me."

"At least I had the sense to take backup."

"Hey! Ron was there! And, well, ok I'll give you Lockhart."

"I don't want him." Xander smirked, "Besides, You had Ron. Me? I had Wednesday."

Harry rolled his eyes, "They were both second years, Xan. How big a difference could there possibly be?"

"About the same as Snape compared to Lockhart, I'm betting." Xander replied, "Though I could be doing Wens a disservice there."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure. How about we get on with this, right?"

Xander shrugged, but nodded. "Alright. Let's see what we've got here."

He walked around the dueling facility the room had imagined up for them and was once more impressed. It seemed to be an internationally sanctioned ground, from what he could tell. To be honest, he couldn't be sure of that, but it seemed close enough. Chayton wasn't much of a dueler, or at least he hadn't shown that side of himself if he was. As a retired member of the Proud he'd focused more on pure combat tactics, especially since that sort of no holds barred model was easier to teach in a lot of ways, and Xander hadn't needed dueling anyway.

"This'll do." He said, nodding as he reached the center of the field and plopped down cross-legged. "Let's have a chat about how we're going to do this, Harry."

"Aren't we, you know, going to duel?" Harry asked as he walked over and took a seat.

"Soon enough." Xander nodded, "but you know, if it's dueling you want, you'll need someone who knows how."

"Don't you? You said you were taking lessons…"

"Sure, but I just started," Xander admitted, "And you need a pro. Ask Dumbles, he likes you."

Harry shook his head, frowning, "I don't think he'll teach me anything. He doesn't answer questions, why would he show me spells?"

Xander half nodded, "Alright. Well, there's Sirius if we can get you two in the same place without bringing every Auror in the country down on our butts… Or, well have you thought about Flitwick?"

"Professor Flitwick?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Yeah, even my teacher knows about him," Xander answered, "big time dueler. Champion even, won a few tournaments in his day."

That was a bit of an understatement, from what Xander actually knew. When talking about his schooling, Xander had been surprised by Chayton's open shock at Flitwick's name, and the Native American's clear admiration for the half goblin charm's master.

"I don't know, I've never talked to Professor Flitwick outside of classes…"

"You won't know until you try." Xander said, "But that's up to you."

Xander hopped up, drawing his wand. "Let's try a few back and forths, no dangerous spells, we'll keep it clean. Alright?"

Harry nodded and eagerly pulled his wand as Xander walked to one side, motioning him to the opposite.

"Ready when you are," Xander said from one side, wand in hand and waiting.

"Right." Harry nodded, taking a breath. A beat passed, then his wand snapped out, "Expelliarmus!"

Xander sidestepped, scowling.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, wand and hand out to either side.

"Disarming charm," Harry blinked.

"I KNOW that. I mean why are you opening with it?" Xander said, "Unless you think you're dueling a complete idiot you don't start with that… Unless you DO think you're dueling a complete idiot."

"What? No, I just…"

"Harry, that's a finishing move. You don't use it unless you're ready to end the fight," Xander said, quoting Chayton. "And I'm not quite that bad a dueler."

"Fine. What do you suggest?" Harry asked, exasperated.

Xander smirked, wand snapping up, "Stupefy!"

The red bolt crossed the grounds, startling Harry, who threw himself sideways to avoid it. Hit the ground in a slide, rolling over to his side, and brought his wand up even as another stunner flashed across the room.

"Protego!"

The stunner splashed against the shield, as Harry struggled to one knee, then a blue flash slammed into his shield before he could react and tore it down. Harry gasped, recognizing the bone splitter, and threw himself back the other direction as another Stunner crossed the air where he'd been.

He shoulder rolled his time, coming back to his feet, and brought up another Protego shield in time to intercept the stunner coming his way. He recognized the pattern Xander was hitting him with, and part of Harry's mind had to give the American credit. The Stunners were there to force him to shield or move, while the bone splitters followed up to take down his shield since Xander knew that Harry couldn't risk taking a hit by one of those curses.

True to form a bone splitter shattered his shield a second later, leading Harry to move again. This time, however, he dove forward and under the incoming stunner. He hit the ground in a roll, and came up cursing.

"Stupefy! Rictusempra! Stupefy!"

Now it was Xander who was defending and dodging, throwing up a shield only to have it burst almost instantly when Harry's stunner splashed on them. Xander gritted his teeth as he took the tickling charm, and then rolled back as the second stunner passed overhead. He came back up to his feet, Protego shimmering into existence, just in time to intercept another stunner.

Xander charged through his dying shield, wand dancing out the tempo of the stunning curse as he charged into Harry's position.

Harry flinched, falling back a step, then had to throw himself to one side as the first of the curses flashed by. His own wand danced, his lips casting ahead of his mind, and the red glowing stunners began criss-crossing the room.

Both boys somehow remained standing, more likely due to bad aim on their opponents part than their own ability to dodge, but in seconds the battle was at point blank range and the next barrage simply wasn't going to miss.

Harry got his spell off a split second faster, but Xander's was right behind, and in a flash both boys were struck in the chest and blown back and away from each other. Harry hit the ground skidding, light fading as Xander's spell surged through his neurons, disrupting them temporarily. Xander, on the other hand, flew back across half the room before landing in a heap, his own lights having been blown out before he landed.

A lone house elf looked at the two boys and debated possible actions. Finally he snapped his fingers and summoned three others.

"Gets them drinks and pillows. They's going to be hurting when they wakes up."

* * *

The next morning Xander found himself cradling his head as he dropped into his chair at the first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year. Whatever failings Harry had in his technique, which even Xander could see clearly enough, he more than made up for in in reflex, speed, and power. Three duels, Xander won two by the skin of his teeth after realizing that if he screwed around Harry would pulverize him.

By using every technique Chayton had shown him, basically cheating his ass off, Xander had managed to score two wins after the first tie. Xander wasn't sure he'd be able to cheat nearly good enough to keep it up.

Harry was an easy guy to hate, Xander had to admit. No one should be that good at dueling when they've basically never done it before. Xander didn't count Harry's mix-ups with Draco as actual fights since he was pretty sure Draco was holding back. Not that Draco wasn't trying to win those fights, but Xander has a suspicion that he was trying to do so without getting his ass thrown in Azkaban.

As Xander had seen last night, handicapping himself against Harry Freaking Potter was NOT the way to win a fight. It brought to mind what Chayton had told him about the Wizarding world, and more specifically the way Wizards were unofficially ranked.

Low Magics, or Squibs, were those who didn't have the magical prowess to complete, at a minimum, their Practical OWLS. The range for Squibs was pretty wide, though, with some unable to cast at all and some right on the knife edge of completing their OWLS.

Above them you had a graduating series of levels, with 90th percentile Wizards being in the OWLS range, but unable to complete their NEWTS. NEWTS Wizards generally were considered to begin around the Ninety Fifth percentile, which was the minimum requirement to receive a letter to Hogwarts, Salem, or any of the other premier schools.

From Ninety Fifth to Ninety Ninth there wasn't much differentiating the group. Some were just stronger Wizards than others. Xander knew that he himself was most likely Ninety Sixth to Ninety Seventh percentile, with a little room to grow. That put him so far above the majority of humanity in terms of power potential it was mind boggling, but Harry blew through his shields with ease.

Which to Xander's mind brought him to the last distinct category Chayton talked about.

The Ninety Ninth percentile.

Contrary to what it sounded like, it was based on a bell curve so you didn't get one person in a hundred in that slot. It was more along the lines of one person in a billion or so. Chayton had guessed that Dumbledore was either a very high ninety eight, or a ninety nine himself. Mold in his shorts was also a solid ninety nine. And really that illustrated the problem with Ninety Ninth percentile Wizards, to Chayton's view.

One of them could basically ignore any law or government they chose. Send a hundred Aurors after them, and you'd most likely get back a hundred bodies if you were lucky. It wasn't about skill, though that was a factor of course, no it was all about pure power… which made Xander wonder if he wasn't seeing another Ninety Nine growing into his power in Harry.

It would make sense, he supposed, given Harry's survival as a child. Especially if everyone was right and it had actually been Harry and not his mother or father who somehow pulled it off.

He shot a glance across the classroom at the inoffensive form of Harry Potter, trying to imagine the boy as an unstoppable juggernaut with a wand. He snorted involuntarily, attracting the ire of Alastor Moody.

"Something funny about the Unforgivables, Boy?"

Xander gulped as a few Gryffs snickered, then quickly shook his head. "No sir."

"Well, not that we've heard from the Slytherin Contingent," Moody rasped out, "What about the rest of you. Unforgivables. Name One…"

He looked around the class, then jabbed a finger at Malfoy. "You."

"The Imperius." Malfoy smirked.

"You would know that one," Moody replied wryly. "I believe your father claimed familiarity with it."

He whipped out his wand and pointed it at a spider on his desk. "Imperio."

The class laughed as the spider did a little dance, but were silenced when Moody scowled at them.

"Next… You, there, Longbottom."

Neville stuttered, barely managing to get the words out. "T-the Cru-Cruciatus."

"Yes, the torture curse." Moody said, instantly snapping his wand at the spider as he called out the spell. "Crucio!"

This time there was no snickering as some of the students even shrieked and most looked green as the spider writhed under the curse. The scene imprinted itself on Xander's mind, making him cringe even as part of him couldn't help but wonder at it.

' I didn't know Spiders could feel pain the same way people did… '

"I guess that leaves one more. Isn't that right… Potter?" Moody asked, looking at the Boy Who Lived.

Harry swallowed, but nodded, "The killing curse, Sir."

Moody nodded, then his wand flashed out as he incanted the curse, and in a green wash of light the spider moved no more.

"Unforgivable." Moody said, "Three spells, using any of them on a person earns you a ticket to Azkaban. One way, no return. Everyone has their own thoughts on which is worse, or which is more powerful, but by the law… it doesn't matter. Use one, use them all."

The class quietly accepted that, no one saying anything at all.

* * *

DADA, despite its peculiarities, was probably the high point of classes for Xander as he made his way through his schedule.

Arithmancy and Runes had been paired down by this year, bringing all the fourth years students to the same class so he sat between Wednesday and Hermione there. Potions was much the same as every year, still with the Gryffs, but mostly ignored by everyone up to and including the Professor. Charms and Transfigurations was mostly the same, though with better attentions from the teachers.

Since he was mostly ahead of the classes in all of those, Xander was able to keep up the work on his own projects. Not really surprising, he supposed, since his own projects were precisely WHY he was ahead of the curve after all.

He had a few ideas for improving his wands, but they were really nothing more than random guesses on his part. If any of them worked even slightly he'd count it as a huge win. His TV idea was gold, though, Xander figured. If, that is, he could figure out how to do it without blowing out a thousand dollar piece of electronics the first time he tried it.

Ah well, he supposed he could afford it.

* * *

Classes showed no sign of letting up over the next week or so, in fact all of them getting more and more intense. Xander found himself working more on homework than his own stuff, but still kept the two balanced.

Everyone was buzzing about the announcement from Moody by the end of the week, however, saying that they would be tested against the Imperious itself.

Even Xander was excited.

* * *

Ok, Imperious lessons sucked.

Xander was nursing the king of all headaches by the time the class had ended, probably the only reason he wasn't more embarrassed by being made to dance around the class like an idiot while under the curse. He slumped into his normal seat in the library and looked over at Wednesday, who was already there.

"You look like hell." She said, eyes coming up to study him.

"Better than I feel then." Xander grunted out.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Imperious lessons in DADA." Xander said tiredly.

Wednesday's eyes widened minutely, "Really?"

Xander nodded, "My Occlumency shields are never gonna get built if they keep getting torn up like this."

"Headache?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Poor baby." She said dryly, then returned to her book.

Xander muffled a moan as his head spiked again, ' Addamses. '

* * *

Harry had a lot of things on his mind, between the past week and the DADA class he was practically buzzing with energy and thoughts as he made his way back to the Gryffindor dorm. Dueling with Xander had been great, he'd never really had a real duel before.

Even against Quirrell, when the man had been possessed, it had really just come down to grappling until his mother's magic kicked in. A real exchange of spells wasn't part of the game, it seemed. That first night he'd lost twice to Xander, but the fights had left him feeling pumped up and ready for more. Since then they caught a few more times in the Room, and Harry felt he'd acquitted himself well.

In class this morning, he'd been tested by an unforgiveable and had been able to resist!

Harry wasn't sure if he should be happy about it, but somehow he felt like he could take on the world all the same. Even the pain in his scar seemed like a faded memory in the daylight, leaving him relieved.

The school year was looking to be better than before, in his opinion. For one thing, there was a decent DADA professor, only the second such in four years. For a second, he had someone who was willing to help him learn outside of class. Well, someone who would help him learn WITHOUT trying to kill him with books.

God knew he loved Hermione, but honestly she scared him more often than not.

Ok, the lack of Quidditch blew, but maybe the Tri Wizard Tourney would be fun to watch. At least he wouldn't be the target this time, so he could relax if nothing else.

Everyone was excited now, since the other schools were due to arrive soon, and Harry found himself as infected by the enthusiasm as everyone else.


	87. Chapter 87

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"What ARE you drinking?"

The sneering voice shook Xander out of his reverie, turning him to the left to see Draco glaring down at the table in front of him. Xander followed his gaze and shrugged.

"Coke. Why?"

Draco glared at the black liquid that was bubbling in front of Xander, "It looks like something Longbottom might brew up in class."

Xander looked at it for a moment, then had to smother a laugh. He really didn't think it was that bad, but he had to admit that the soft drink didn't look normal for the wizarding world. It had taken him hours of cajoling to get the Elves to locate a supply they could bring into the school.

"It's a non-magical drink," Xander said, "The most popular in the world, I think."

Draco sneered, "Which means what?"

"Well, it means billions of people drink this stuff every day, for one." Xander shrugged, taking a drink. "Sue me, I'm sick of pumpkin juice."

"So you drink this muggle swill?" Draco grabbed the glass out of Xander's hand, sniffing at it disdainfully.

"Come on, man, give me my drink back." Xander grabbed for it, but Draco pulled back out of his reach.

"You're a Slytherin, Harris. Show some dignity, for Merlin's sake."

"Don't knock it until you try it." Xander replied, rolling his eyes.

Draco quickly set the drink down, "As if I would ever taint myself with muggle poison."

Xander picked it back up, shrugging, "According to my mom, you're not far off on that. Still, if you haven't got the guts for it…"

Draco had the drink out of his hands before Xander could blink, making him wonder for a moment if the blond had somehow magicked it from him.

"I'll show you who's gutless!" Draco muttered, putting the goblet up to his mouth and inhaling the drink.

"No! Draco don't drink it that fast!" Xander blurted, far too late.

Draco's victorious smirk vanished in a painful grimace as the soda back up on him, foaming through his lungs and nasal passages. He held it for a moment, then snorted painfully back into the goblet as cream colored foam erupted from his nose.

"Arrrgh!" Draco gasped painfully, clutching at his throat, "You've poisoned me! You bastard, you poisoned me!"

Xander disdainfully pushed the goblet away, "I'm not the guy who just filled someone's drink with snot."

"Mr. Harris!" Snape growled, "What have you done to Mr. Malfoy!?"

"Apparently I let him steal my bloody drink." Xander muttered, "He'll live. Could I get another coke please?"

Snape blinked, eyeing the new Goblet that appeared in front of Harris. "This is what Draco drank?"

Xander nodded, taking a drink as Draco kept gagging and gasping beside him. "It's a drink, you're not supposed to inhale it."

Draco's melodramatic actions had attracted the attention of pretty much the entire great hall, including the Headmaster by this point.

"What seems to be the problem, Professor Snape?" The old man asked, eyes dancing in amusement as he eyed Draco's convulsions.

"Mr. Harris seems to have corrupted the house elves, Headmaster." Snape said sourly, "and this muggle concoction appears to have disabled Mr. Malfoy."

"I believe that Mr. Malfoy will be fine, Professor." Dumbledore said, smiling at Draco's antics. "May I?"

Xander blinked, then nodded and handed the goblet to the old man. "Sure, knock yourself out."

"I haven't done that since that time in the sixties," Dumbledore smiled as he took a deep drink. "Ah. They've changed the flavor since I sampled it from Mr. Pemberton's soda fountain. Alas, Mr. Harris, I'm afraid we don't permit drinks of this nature in Hogwarts."

Xander blinked, "Huh?"

"Kola nuts and Coca leaves are sources of caffeine and other substances we don't allow in Hogwarts."

"Coca leaves?" Xander blinked, looking down at the drink, "I don't think they've put those in Coke for a hundred years."

"Ah. Well, yes I suppose that does place my age a little more specifically than I would like." Dumbledore smiled beatifically. "However, we don't permit caffeine here either, and I presume that is still an ingredient?"

Xander pouted, looking down at the drink, "Aw, but the caffeine free version sucks."

"Be that as it may, I'm going to have to inform the elves not to supply you with anymore."

Xander glared sourly at Draco, "Thanks for nothing you drama queen."

A new Goblet of pumpkin juice appeared in front of him as the Headmaster and Professor turned to head back to the head table, leaving Xander to sigh in annoyance. He glared at Draco, then again at the Headmaster's retreating back.

'Oh, this calls for payback.' Xander thought in annoyance, 'Messing with my junk food… buggers.'

* * *

The other schools were due to arrive the next day, and the buzz around the school continued to grow as the time grew nearer. Xander found himself caught up in the excitement, and he noticed that even Wednesday seemed a little eager to see the new students. Of course, that just meant that she was slightly less flat and dry when discussing the coming tournament.

His sparring with Harry had progressed well beyond his skills, much to his annoyance, so he was looking forward to something that might distract Harry a little as well. The blasted guy was blowing through his shields without trying, and while Xander's physical conditioning was far better, Harry moved like a scalded cat.

If he could keep Harry from knocking him out in the first few minutes, Xander could wear him out, but it was a real trial. Basically all Xander could do was run Harry around the dueling ring until Harry collapsed in a sweating, wheezing, pile. By this point Xander was only in moderately better shape himself, and could barely mount the energy for a stunner. Even so, this tactic did net him a roughly even win record for the moment at least.

The problem was that Harry seemed to absorb tactics and spells like a sponge, turning moves that Xander spent weeks learning back on him after one or two times just seeing them. Xander didn't know much about fighting, despite everything, but he could recognize a tactical genius when he saw one.

Luckily, Harry was pants at strategy. He didn't catch on to Xander's 'wear him down' strategy for almost two weeks, and showed no sign of working out a counter besides hitting harder and faster at the start of a fight, which simply wore him out all the quicker.

Luckily, Xander's other projects were moving along with more satisfaction for him personally than his sparring was. The TV idea was pretty much worked out on paper, and now merely needed to be put together for real. He couldn't do that until the next summer break, however, much to his annoyance. He really wished he'd been able to work that out a couple months earlier.

He'd been working on a new shield spell in the meantime, however, based on his experiences from the World Cup and some stuff from one of the military sourcebooks he'd purchased for gaming with Jessie. The arithmancy on that one was incredibly convoluted, much to his annoyance, but with Hermione's help he was starting to feel like maybe they might be able to pull it off.

So far he hadn't been able to cast the damn thing, however, so Xander guessed that there was still a fault in the formula.

All this, and Halloween was still to come. It was shaping up to be a very busy year.

* * *

The entire school was gathered outside, waiting for the arrival of the visiting schools when someone pointed up into the air and screeched.

Xander looked up at some dots in the sky, eyes widening as they approached.

"Whoa. Cool."

The ornate chariot flew gracefully into the grounds, pulled by a long line of flying horses.

"Pegasii?" Xander blinked, remembering his dungeons and dragons books.

"Abraxan." Wednesday corrected, "Note the size."

Xander had to give her the point, he'd never heard of Pegasii the size of elephants before. "Nice."

"Indeed." Wednesday nodded.

The carriage made its landing, and what seemed like the entire school of Beauxbatons poured out, and were greeted by the professors in turn. That procession had barely gotten underway, however, when another scream rang out and the attention turned to the lake.

Xander raised his eyebrows as he noted the disturbance in the water, large poles appearing from the lake and rising quickly to become masts with full sail rigging as a sailing vessel broached the surface like a submarine on full emergency surfacing.

"Neat," He said blandly, having long gotten used to the weird and bizarre scenes that came with living at Hogwarts.

"The Dutchman," Wednesday said from his side, "Legends say that it's named after the vessel that ferries dead sailors across the veil to the other side."

"All I can say is that it's a damned good thing that subs don't have windows," Xander grinned, "That thing would give navy sailors nightmares that the Russians couldn't hope to match."

Wednesday rolled her eyes, sighing deeply.

* * *

Both schools had come to put on a show, something that should have been clear by their arrival alone, Xander supposed. When the door to the great hall burst open and the girls of Beauxbatons strode in he realized that the show wasn't over by a long shot, and what was worse, there was apparently a Veela encore.

He slammed his Occlumency shields into place at the first hint of allure, and was relieved when the allure didn't increase past a light mental caress. He pegged the source quickly, a tall blond striding in the center of the first group with a haughty look on her face. She was drawing the focus of every male in the room, but nothing more than that, and he was incredibly grateful as he was entirely too aware of how much she could be blasting into the room.

With his shields up her allure was less painful than the incessant drumming of the Durmstrang procession, though he had to admit that the acrobatics were impressive.

More interesting to Xander, and unless he missed his guess to Wednesday as well, was the appearance of Professor Hardy at the back of the final procession. The man nodded to them both from where he moved to stand, then calmly looked out over the rest of the hall.

As things calmed down, Albus Dumbledore looked around and rose to his feet.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly — guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

Xander heard a muffled snort of derision from the direction of the Ravenclaw tables and glanced over to see one of the French girls wrapping herself tighter in a thick shawl. He sympathized with the girl, being a Cali boy himself, but also noted that she wasn't making many friends from the looks of the glares leveled at her from the girls around her and over at the Gryff table.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

The feast appeared, and the students began to mingle as they ate, most of the Durmstrang students gravitating to the Slytherin tables even as the Beauxbatons group tended to focus themselves around the Claws. Xander found himself crowded a bit as several snooty types shoved in between himself and Draco, talking in mixed language to the Malfoy scion who answered back in Bulgarian much to Xander's surprise.

Xander's own language skills were mostly limited to English, Latin, and a few obscure examples of magical languages that had come up in his studies. Bulgarian, unfortunately, wasn't among them and so he just shoved over a bit more and kept eating. His mind was more on getting back at Dumbledore and Malfoy for the loss of his soda than anything else, anyway.

He had an idea along those lines, but it was going to be tough to get them ready for the next day, cause he wanted as big an audience as he could get and that would be at the Halloween feast just before the champions were announced.

He finished up quickly and made his way out of the hall, he had a lot of work to do.

Xander was surprised when he was met partway by Wednesday, who was looking moderately disgruntled to his eyes. Of course, that just meant that she looked blank faced as usual to most people. She fell into step at his side, and he didn't pause as she matched his pace, the duo sweeping from the hall in silence.

* * *

Wednesday was surprised when Xander didn't speak as they left the hall, she had seen the recognition in his eyes when he saw her state of mind and expected him to question it. It wasn't a particularly big deal, of course, she just had a limited tolerance for giggling fools which, unfortunately, was something the French girls had in plenty amongst them.

She unconsciously plotted a path to the library, assuming that was where Xander would be going as well since that was where they spent almost all the time they were together, but was surprised again when he slid a hand along the small of her back and guided her in another direction. This time she was impressed at least as much as she was curious, Xander normally couldn't decide to turn left or right without spewing reams of mindless drivel.

She held her own tongue as well, her curiosity warring with itself as part of her wanted to know where they were going, and another part wanted to see what Xander was up to and how he would handle whatever it was.

She remained silent.

They came to an empty stretch of corridor, and he motioned her to wait for him as he began to pace back and forth, muttering under his breath. Wednesday might have thought that he's lost his mind, except that she had never been entirely convinced that he had one to begin with. Before she could speak up, however, she was shocked to see a door appear from nowhere.

Xander grinned and took her hand, pulling her through it and into what looked like the most complete research laboratory she'd ever seen.

"Like it?" Xander grinned.

"Impressive."

"It's the Room of Requirement," Xander told her, "The elves told us about it when Harry and I went looking for a place to spar. I guess it's enchanted to become whatever you need."

"I see," She said, moving slowly between the glass covered steel tables, "And why do you need this, precisely?"

"I need a little help with a prank."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "A prank?"

He nodded.

"You're asking ME to help with a prank?"

Xander again nodded.

She stared at him for a long moment, noting finally that Xander was getting nervous. Perfect. That was precisely as it should be.

"Fine. Who are we pranking?"

"Well, I'm hoping to catch Draco with it," Xander admitted, "But my main target is Mein Fuhrer Dumbledore."

Wednesday winced ever so slightly, then pinched the bridge of her nose as she exhaled in annoyance. "Is this over the Coke incident?"

"No one gets between me and my junk food!" Xander proclaimed, "Today it's Coke, Tomorrow it could be Twinkies!"

Wednesday sighed, "It's like you're a shorter, less handsome, version of Uncle Fester."

"Oy!" Xander objected. "Isn't that a little uncalled for?"

"Perhaps, you are still growing after all."

Xander groaned. Sometimes Wednesday could be really mean.

The Addams scion, for her part, sighed and looked around. "What exactly are you planning? Second year notwithstanding, I have a difficult time imagining what sort of spell you could get past the Headmaster's gaze."

Xander forced a smirk, though he was still smarting a little from her earlier comment, "Not going to get any spell past him, not going to even try."

"Then what?"

Xander grinned, "I'm going to show him exactly the respect he deserves."

"Oh dear."

* * *

It was after curfew when Xander stumbled back into the Slytherin dorms, his own version of the Marauder's map helping him sneak in without being spotted. He was only mildly surprised to find that the room was filled with Slytherin and Durmstrang celebrants, all of them talking about the coming tournament. They all fell quiet for a moment when he entered, but when they realized that he wasn't a teacher the noise swiftly returned.

"Where have you been, Harris?" Draco demanded, one of the few who kept their attention on him.

"Working." Xander said, smirking slightly. He really couldn't help it, though the nerves in his stomach were doing their best to wipe the look from his face.

"At this time of night? On what?"

"Transfiguration."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Pull the other one, Harris. McGonagall hasn't assigned any extra work yet this term."

"Never said it was for class." Xander smirked again, though he mentally berated himself for gloating before the prank was even pulled. He supposed it was time to redirect Malfoy anyway, "What's with all the people anyway?"

"Durmstrang students simply wanted to associate themselves with the right kind of people," Malfoy puffed himself up.

"How'd you get in then?" Xander quipped, this time smirking cause he had wanted to put then drama queen in his place ever since the choking incident.

"I'm warning you, Harris…!" Draco growled out, not noticing that he had attracted the attention of much of the common room.

"I always feel guilty after our 'discussions', Draco." Xander said, shaking his head as he made his way past. "A battle of wits with you always makes me feel like such a bully."

Draco frowned, confused by the statement. By the time the snickers and titters from the crowd penetrated his skull, however, Xander was gone from the room.

* * *

The next morning found most of the school turned out in the Great Hall, watching the cup where it burned brightly behind the age line Dumbledore had cast, most watching as a brave and foolhardy few threw their lot to the flames in the hope of glory and galleons.

Xander, for his part, was just as nervous as if he were actually entering the tournament. He and Wednesday had spent much of the night transfiguring the things he needed for his prank, but now he was second guessing himself. What he had planned wasn't exactly subtle, but Xander wasn't such a fool that he believed most of the Witches and Wizards present would figure out the full depth of it. He just hoped that enough did to make it really sing.

He paused by the Gryff table on his way by, joining them as they watched the twins take a potion and attempt to bypass the age line.

"Do they really think that's going to work?" He asked Harry.

Harry shrugged, "The twins are pretty brilliant."

"Oh honestly, Harry. You can't actually believe…" Hermione was cut off when the twins were thrown clear of the circle, "There? See?"

Harry laughed with everyone else, including the twins, when they stood up sporting long white beards. "Hey, they wanted to try."

"Sense isn't a word in their dictionary." Xander smirked.

"Too right." Ron snorted. He wasn't really comfortable with the Slytherin standing at the table, but even he couldn't say anything against this one.

"I'm just thankful that I'm too young," Harry grinned, "Otherwise you know my name would be in there somehow. This year I get to sit back and watch someone else be the hero."

Xander barked out a laugh, drawing the attention of many around him. "You do know that you just jinxed yourself, right Harry?"

Harry grimaced, looking worried.

"Oh leave him alone, Xander. Harry, don't listen to him," Hermione said, shaking her head. "He has an execrable sense of humor."

"I'd object to that, if I knew what it meant."

Hermione shot him a glare as several students chuckled.

"Anyway," Xander winked at her, waving to the table in general. "Time for breakfast."

She huffed at him, but Xander was soon lost in the crowd and Hermione sat down and shook her head. "He's such a child."

Unknown to her Xander had back tracked as Wednesday calmly cast a few mild Confundus charms and some weak compulsions in his wake. Several students noted Xander's passing in their minds, even as he turned and walked the other direction. At the Slytherin tables, several would swear he sat down to eat breakfast with them.

In actuality he stepped outside the Great Hall and ducked into a nearby broom closet where he found the transfigured items he had stashed there earlier in the morning.

* * *

When the doors to the hall opened, no one took much notice, the two large slabs of wood and metal smoothly swung on their greased and enchanted hinges to reveal the figure behind and Xander stepped into the hall with a confident stride that he simply did not feel. His heart in his throat, and his stomach curled in on itself, he knew that even if he did everything perfectly he could crash and burn here based entirely on the reactions of others.

It was a horrifying thought, and even as he paused inside the door to look first left at the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables and then right at Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, he berated himself for not realizing that very fact earlier.

It was too late, however, and he was committed. He reminded himself that he knew his targets, and was confident in their reactions and so he brought up his armor shod hands as his breath roared in his ears.

'Trust Wednesday.' He thought as he waited a moment, feeling the terror slide away and the persona he was wearing tighten around him.

Then he parted his hands, smirking slightly as he saw Wednesday's wand twitch with perfect timing. Like Moses parting the red sea, the Gryffindor table slid sideways into the Puff's even as the Slytherin's slid into the Claw's, eliciting yells of shock from the students who were suddenly crushed into each other.

'Bless you, Wens,' Xander thought, taking another roaring breath as his heart settled. 'My game now.'

The center of the hall was now clear of obstruction, with a width of over a dozen feet and only Xander standing within it. He began to stride toward the head table with a confidence he was only just beginning to fake.

The professor's, of course, noted him immediately, but said nothing as they drew their wands in a defensive measure.

Xander's pulse quickened again, but hi remained focused on Dumbledore. 'Come on, old man. Do what I know you're going to do. Play the peacemaker. Play IT.'

When Dumbledore brought up his hand, stalling the curses that Xander knew his own head of house was contemplating, Xander let out a breath of relief. It roared a little louder, and finally brought him to the attention of the students.

Three first years shrieked when they spotted him, two from Hufflepuff and one from Gryffindor. He smirked under the helm he wore. 'Easy to tell they're muggle born.'

Others turned to look and the muggle-born students reacted with instant recognition, some startled, some bemused, and a few smiling openly as they realized it was a gag. It HAD to be a gag. The pureblood's, however, were all confused until the whispers from the muggle-borns began to circulate, and then they began to react with mixed horror and utter confusion.

"Now THAT is a Dark Lord," One Ravenclaw said, whistling with an amused tone.

The call was quickly picked up, and the whispered words 'Dark Lord' and 'Sith' etched down the hall as Lord Vader began the long walk to the head table.

Xander ignored it all, his focus was on two people. The first was the Headmaster, though from the returned twinkle in the old man's eyes, Xander suspected that he had seen the movies and knew that this was all a show at this point.

'Perfect. This would lose a lot of its fun if he didn't get the joke.' Xander thought with a malicious grin.

The second person he focused on was Draco Malfoy, however, and here Xander knew he was going to have to play the role to the hilt and rely on Draco to shove his foot in his mouth. He hated having to rely on Draco for anything, but if he had to do it that was the thing to count on, Xander reflected.

His cadence ceased as Xander reached the front of the teacher's table, where Snape was glaring at him as McGonagall and the others looked with confusion between him and the headmaster.

"Well, well," Dumbledore spoke up first, "What brings the Dark Lord Vader himself to Hogwarts this fine Halloween?"

Not quite the perfect setup, but as good as Xander had hoped and far, far better than he'd feared. His breath roared through the helm, charmed as it was to make his breathing loud and forced and also to alter the timbre of his voice. He dropped to one knee, cape flowing behind him as he planted his fists to the floor and bowed his head deeply.

"I come to ask thy bidding, my Master."

Shocked silence on the hall, and Xander risked a glance up, his eyes hidden behind the transfigured helm. It was all he could do not to roll over cackling in delight. The old man's face looked shocked, like he'd just tasted something particularly sour as his eyes bulged momentarily.

"WHAT!?"

Xander closed his eyes for a moment and grinned under the mask. 'Thank you Lord, for making Draco Malfoy such a fool.'

"You MUST be joking! This is ludicrous! No self-respecting Dark Lord bows to HIM!"

Xander rose smoothly to his feet, all in a single fluid motion, and turned on the young man. His cape flowed out behind him, charmed with some singularly useless but admittedly cool fashion charms he'd gotten from Sirius Black's additions to the Grimoire.

"You should not speak of that which you know nothing, BOY." Xander said in his most condescending tone. Ironically, he noted, he'd learned it from Draco. This was the critical juncture, he knew, and Xander locked eyes with Draco who was already quivering with rage.

"You don't even have a wand," Draco smirked nastily, "Some Dark Lord you're supposed to be."

"Do not be so proud of this magical terror you hide behind," Xander replied back, his inner geek jumping up and down in pure unadulterated glee even as he kept his eyes locked with Malfoy's. 'Any second now. Just one more… push…', "It pales in significance before the POWER of the Force."

Draco, seeing an unarmed man in front of him, was finally pushed too far and went for his wand with an impressively fast draw. Fast enough that Xander knew he would have no chance of getting his own out first.

Luckily, he wasn't planning on it.

'NOW!' He thought desperately as Draco's intent flashed in his eyes, imprinting itself on Xander's foremind through the passive Legilimency he'd begun to tap.

"Protego." Xander whispered as he spread his hand wide, the word not being etched past due to the filtering charms he and Wednesday had placed on it.

"Stupefy! Stupefy!" Draco snapped, his wand moving like lightning.

The small plate sized Protego shield snapped into place between them as Xander channeled his power through the tiny hold out wand he'd strapped to his wrist. He could see Draco's intent and moved his hand to intercept the spell, deflecting the stunners off into the walls of the hall. Draco, and most everyone else, stared in stunned shock as Xander flipped his hand over, canceled the Protego, and whispered another spell.

"Accio Wand."

The Accio charm was quite tough, but it was also of the same family as the Depulso charm, which Xander had spent the early weeks of the summer learning. Making it harder, however, was the fact that he was using his tiny hold out wands, which really didn't focus very well over anything but point blank ranges.

Had Draco's grip been even moderately firm, it wouldn't have worked. Against a stunned and utterly bewildered fourth year, however, the spell functioned perfectly and the wand was ripped from the blond boy's hand and flew quite cleanly into Xander's.

'This is SO FREAKING AWESOME!' Xander thought as he forced himself to remain still.

The next move was his, the shock and awe of his seemingly easy use of wandless magic having stunned the wizards around him. He took a chance, knowing that if Dumbledore had seen the movies he would have to react, but if he hadn't, Xander suspected he was about to look really stupid.

He took one step toward Draco, drawing himself up to his full height (which was enhanced by the extra thick heals in his transfigured boots) and menacingly brought up his left hand in a claw grip as if he were squeezing down on something soft.

"NO!" Dumbledore roared, coming to his feet in a rare moment of panic for the old man.

Xander paused, showing no fear of the gnarled wand that had appeared in the old man's hand. Thank God for the armor, Xander through, because he was almost literally quaking in his boots at the sudden rush of power Dumbledore had exuded.

"As you wish…" Xander said, relaxing back. "My Master."

Albus Dumbledore found himself in an unusual position. He KNEW this was a prank, but even so he couldn't stop himself from reacting when the figure moved to strangle Draco from a distance. He suspected it was a bluff, but now it looked like he believed the man to be a threat. Albus had to admit, it was a masterful bit of acting, though he was truly fascinated by the apparent use of wandless magic. How had the prankster pulled that off?

In any case, he had to expose this now before it went any further. There were too many people present who simply didn't know anything about Muggle entertainment, and the last thing he wanted was rumors that he was commanding Dark Lords to reach the ears of the press.

"That's quite enough, young man." He said, his eyes twinkling again as he took a calculated gamble. He expected that the person was male, and most likely a student, obviously muggle-born or with close ties to the muggle world at least. Unfortunately, the helm prevented him from seeing the eyes of the prankster, and so he couldn't divine anything via that method. "A very impressive prank, but you're scaring the children."

The 'Dark Lord' turned and looked behind him, and noted that quite a few students were indeed shaking in fear, eyes wide with horror. Xander briefly wondered if maybe he'd gone a tad too far.

'Oh Well,' He thought, suddenly smirking. 'They ain't seen nothing yet.'

"Indeed." He said aloud, turning his back to the teacher's table. "Perhaps they are right to fear me."

"Enough of that." Dumbledore ordered sternly.

"Very well," Xander smirked, getting in his last jibe. "My Master."

He didn't have to turn around to know that Dumbledore had that same sour look on his face again. Xander smirked uncontrollably, his cheeks threating to split.

"Then I suppose I must bid the school…" He said in a slow and threating voice, "A very… Happy Halloween."

The students looked perplexed for a moment, then as one seemed to say 'Huh!?' as Xander drew both his wands in a lightning fast movement and raised them into the air.

"NOX!"

The floating candles blinked out in fast succession, Xander's spell combined with Wednesday's backup casting, and plunged the hall into darkness. Xander twisted, planting a hand on the Slytherin table as he mentally canceled the transfiguration on his armor, returning it to its natural Green and Silver fabric in a flowing instant.

"Ignis!" Dumbledore roared, bringing all the lights back.

The people in the Hall looked around in skittish confusion.

The Dark Lord of the Sith was gone.

"Seal the room! He's in here somewhere!" Severus Snape snarled, rising to his feet.

Beside Draco, Xander took a sip of a goblet of pumpkin juice. "Now THAT was a Muggle's idea of a Dark Lord. Hey! Headmaster! Cool Halloween show!"

Albus glanced at the Slytherin table and blinked. He nodded slowly, then returned the boy's infectious smile. "Indeed."

Louder, he addressed the hall, "I hope everyone enjoyed the little display. This was a marvelous depiction of a character from a Muggle entertainment entitled Star Wars, a Muggle idea of a Dark Lord if you will. It also shows another entrancing muggle custom, the Halloween Masquerade. I hope that everyone has learned a little more about our muggle brethren."

With a wave of his wand, Albus returned the tables to their places and unlocked the large doors that had swung shut at Snape's command.

"Headmaster, you're letting him get away…" Severus hissed softly.

"Nonsense, my boy." Albus smiled, though it was a little forced. "I don't believe that our Lord Vader is going to be skipping out on classes."

Snape blinked, bewildered and leaned in closer. "Surely you don't believe that it was a student? Headmaster, he used wandless magic…"

"That was most impressive, wasn't it?" Albus smiled, this time more genuinely. "You are wrong, however. It was wanded, the feel of the two are quite distinct. I must admit, however, that I have no idea where or how he was hiding the wand."

Snape stared incredulously for a moment, "You're actually IMPRESSED with this?"

"And you aren't?" Albus returned, equally incredulous, though with more amusement in his tone. "It was masterfully played, Severus. Ah, alas you've never seen Star Wars, have you? You should go sometime, they still replay it on occasion in muggle theatres."

Severus Snape snorted, "I bet it was Potter. This grandiose posturing is just like him."

"Severus, Severus," Albus chided, "You really must get over this foible of yours. It will lead you to a bad end."

The Potions Master grumped as he dropped back into his seat.

"Now that the entertainment is ended," Albus said, louder for the hall to hear, "Let us return to the main event of the day, shall we? We only have twelve more hours to accept names for the Tri Wizard Tournament."

Slowly, the population of the hall settled back to normal.


	88. Chapter 88

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

For one Wednesday Addams, watching Xander pull off his prank was a confusing series of moments. She wasn't used to that, her view of life tended to be quite flat and few things held any true surprises for her. So when she saw Xander for the first time, standing in the doorway in full Vader regalia, she felt a flash of something she didn't recognize.

He looked truly menacing for an instant, until she remembered that it was all just a childish prank over a beverage of all things. She played her part, as agreed, more out of curiosity and a desire to quell the boredom than anything else. Banishing the tables was tricky, not so much because the spell was difficult for her but because it had to be done fast enough to appear simultaneous on both sides.

After that she was a mere spectator until the end, so Wednesday settled in to watch and see if Xander would be able to pull it off or if he was about to earn detentions until graduation.

She was surprised when the first years screamed. Certainly, he looked imposing, but he wasn't that frightening. Was he? She frowned, but shook the thought off. When he knelt to Dumbledore, she smirked.

' The respect he deserved, indeed. ' She was amused. It was one of the few ways Xander could effectively take a jab at the powerful old wizard, and he had so far pulled it off masterfully. The look on the headmaster's face confirmed that he knew exactly what was being implied, and obviously didn't appreciate being compared to the Emperor.

When Malfoy opened his mouth, Wednesday felt a thrill run through her at Xander's response. The cold contempt in the altered voice was magnificent, and she was shocked that he could even manage it. Xander was such a goof, his love of magic notwithstanding, she'd never heard him like that before. Even in an act, Wednesday found it twisted up her stomach just enough to make her really anticipate what was about to happen.

Her jaw hung loose, like most of the halls, when Xander casually deflected the stunners with his hand. Even knowing that the wands where there, she was impressed. She made a note to acquire a pair for herself, and learn whatever method Xander had used to anticipate the target points.

And when he casually moved to strangle the blond brat with a force choke that she was CERTAIN he couldn't do, only to be 'convinced' by the headmaster to reconsider, well… for the first time Wednesday wondered if she had done Xander a disservice in her thoughts.

A flush of emotion filled her, but she ruthlessly suppressed it without bothering to even note what it was. Perhaps she had been unkind to him in her thoughts, he was proving to have more… internal fortitude than she had expected.

She would consider it, she thought as she helped him blow out the lights and make good his escape. From the beginning, Wednesday had known that Xander was someone special. Now, though, she was beginning to wonder if she had mistaken what kind of special he was.

* * *

Xander was immediately accosted when he left the Hall, a bushy headed and rather irate bookworm yanking him to one side.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Alexander Lavelle Harris! Just what did you think you were doing!?" Hermione demanded, her tone brooking no argument.

"What are you talking about?" Xander tried faking innocence.

"Don't try that with me!" She hissed, "How many other students, heck how many other PEOPLE, can cast with two wands like you did with the Nox spell?"

Xander winced.

Damn, he should have remembered that.

"Do you realize you absolutely terrified some of the first years?" She hissed, looking around, "I have a good mind to tell the headmaster it was you."

Xander leveled an even look at her, but didn't say anything. After a long moment Hermione backed down.

"Fine. I won't, and you know I won't, but that was still uncalled for." She hissed.

"Hermione, it was a prank. No one was hurt, and it's Halloween for god's sake! A little scare is good for the soul." Xander grinned. "Did you see the headmaster's face when I called him Master? Ha!"

"Honestly," She huffed, crossing her arms, "Implying that the headmaster is as bad as the emperor. What possessed you?"

"Hey, he banned my cola! First Cola, then what? Twinkies? A line has to be drawn," Xander said, rather pompously.

Hermione groaned, palming her face, "You did NOT organize all of that over a soft drink."

Xander shrugged modestly, smirking.

"Merlin, Xander. I shudder to think what you could do if you put that self-righteous energy to work on something productive." She sighed, shaking her head. "How on earth did you manage to deflect Malfoy's stunners anyway?"

He grinned, tipping his head slightly. "I'll tell you later. Let's move before we draw a crowd, a Gryff chewing out a Slytherin is a spectator sport around here."

Hermione looked around quickly, face flushing slightly, but was glad to see that they hadn't yet picked up any observers. "Fine. Later."

Xander smirked, flipped her a sloppy salute, and headed away.

Hermione watched him go, shaking her head. "Thank Merlin that boy wasn't sorted into Gryffindor. He and the twins would be impossible to deal with."

* * *

Speaking of the twins, the dastardly duo were cursing up a storm when Hermione made it back to the Common room.

"Language!" She shrieked when a particularly nasty non-magical epithet filtered out.

"Sorry…"

"Hermione."

Hermione glared at the not remotely contrite twins, "What on earth is possessing you two to swear like muggle sailors in front of the first years!?"

The twins glanced at each other, looking guiltily between themselves and Hermione.

"Right scary this one is," One uttered.

"Bit like Mum, really." The other finished.

Hermione reddened, her wand coming out.

"We!"

"Surrender!"

She ignored them, brandishing her wand at the duo. "Just because you're older than I am doesn't mean I won't teach you a few painful lessons. Right?"

They nodded, speaking as one. "Right."

"Now," She said again, lowering her wand, "What's this all about?"

"What's this all about, she asks?"

"We missed the prank of the year!"

"Well if you two nitwits hadn't messed with Dumbledore's age line you'd have been there for the visit from…" Hermione couldn't help but snicker, "Lord Vader."

Two first years squeaked in fear.

"Oh honestly!" Hermione turned on them, "He's a muggle entertainment character, like a storybook character. He's not real."

The two stared at her, obviously disbelieving, then bolted for their rooms. Hermione sighed, pinching her nose. "The Wizarding world is completely and totally insane."

"Who was it?" One twin asked eagerly.

"Who is the maestro we have to top?" The other demanded, "Did the professors figure it out?"

"As if I would tell you even if I knew," Hermione stated flatly, shaking her head. "The last thing this school needs is you two teaming up with someone like that."

"Someone like what?" Harry asked as he and Ron came into the common room.

"The most marvelous Dark Lord Vader," The twins parroted together.

Hermione couldn't help it, she started giggling.

"The whole castle is on about that," Ron muttered, "Bloody insane, if you ask me."

"But WHO was it!?" The twins roared as one.

"James Earl Jones," Hermione answered.

The twins looked at each other, "Do we know him?"

"Ravenclaw, perhaps?"

"We can ask Cho Chang."

"Who's this James Jones fellow, Hermione?" Harry asked, confused. "I thought it was pretty clear that Vader was…"

"Harry!" Hermione cut him off, glaring.

"Harry!"

"Friend!"

"Fellow Gryffindor!"

"Teammate!"

The two twins crowded around Harry, who was now looking very uncomfortable.

"Who is it clear that this…"

"Vader chap was?"

"Uh…" Harry gulped, recognizing the bad position he'd put himself in. "No one?"

"Oh, bad show, Harry."

"Yes, indeed. Now we'll have to…"

"Convince you." The duo said together.

"Back off!" Hermione growled, her wand out again.

"You're all bloody mental." Ron announced from safely on the other side of the room. He didn't want to be anywhere near the twins when they were in this sort of mood. "Besides, he was a Dark Lord, right? Must have been a Slytherin."

The twins laughed.

"Ronnie, there are no snakes that good."

The second twin paused, "Except maybe one, brother mine."

"Oh yes, how did I miss that?"

"Well I always was the smart brother."

"True, true…" The other sighed, "I've always had to settle for being the handsome one."

"Well, shall we investigate our suspicious, brother?"

"We shall, brother."

Hermione grimaced as the twins linked arms and goose stepped out of the common room. She then turned and glared at both Harry and Ron.

"You… you… Arrrgh!" She threw her hands up in the air, then pointed at Harry. "Your spell phone. Now."

Harry swallowed, but nodded and pulled the device from his pocket.

Hermione took it and thumbed in the runic number for A. . "It's Hermione. Bad news, Ron and Harry gave the twins enough clues to guess that you may be behind the Vader incident. Watch your back. Alright, I will. Good luck."

"Blimey, Hermione, what's that thing?" Ron blinked, staring at the device he had yet to see.

Harry was a little more nervous, eyeing Hermione closely. "Uh… Hermione, what did you tell him you'd do?"

She drew her wand, "He asked me to hex you both. I'm thinking that maybe you deserve it."

Ron and Harry exchanged glances, then bolted for the boys' stairs as Hermione fired jinxes after them. When they were gone she shook her head.

"Boys."

* * *

Luckily for Xander, and unluckily for the twins, only one of them had a Marauders map and this time it wasn't the twins. Knowing where they were hiding in wait for him made it easy enough to use alternate routes around to school, and so he was able to avoid their presence for the rest of the day until the interschool feast that night.

Amid the Halloween decorations and the crowding of the three schools, Xander took his seat and carefully positioned himself to be hind Crabbe and a hulking Durmstrang boy, and thus nearly entirely out of sight.

The feast came and went and soon the moment the schools had been waiting for was come. The Goblet of Fire was rolled out, and with Dumbledore and the Ministry presiding over the ceremonies, the names were drawn.

Fleur Delecour, of Beauxbatons was first and Xander recognized her as the source of the Veela charm from the day before. She was thankfully reining it in now, however, and he applauded with the rest as they walked to the back room where the Champions would be briefed.

Viktor Krum was next, Durmstrangs students initiating a chant of 'Krum, Krum, Krum' to a low beat of their fists on the table. He followed the Veela.

Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff took the Hogwarts slot, to the roaring approval of Hufflepuff and the enthusiastic applause of the other houses. He too was soon ushered out of sight.

Then Dumbledore began to give a closing speech, only to be interrupted when the cup flared again and another slip of paper came out. The headmaster, shocked and shaking a little, picked it up and read off the name.

"Harry Potter."

There was a long, shocked silence.

And then…

"BWA HA HA HA HA HA!"

The entire gathering turned to look at the Slytherin table where one of the green robed students of Hogwarts was cackling to kill himself as he hammered his fist on the table.

* * *

The great hall was silent, except of course for the insane cackling from the Slytherin table, all eyes turning in disbelief to the source of said cackling. There was a long moment before anyone else said anything, then one voice rang out in response.

"Oh SHUT UP, Harris!"

The eyes in the hall shifted to the Gryffindor table, where Harry James Potter was covering his head in his arms and banging his forehead into the table.

"I *TOLD* you, Potter! I fricken TOLD you!" Xander cackled, still hammering his fist into the table as he laughed.

"Mr. Harris!" Albus Dumbledore spoke up, bringing the laughter to a halt.

Percy Weasley stepped forward, "Mr. Harris, is it? Are you saying you warned Mr. Potter about putting his name into the Goblet?"

Xander totally stopped laughing then, looking at Percy like he was staring at a particularly bizarre form of life.

"Excuse me?" Xander asked, puzzled.

"You said you warned him, Mr. Harris. Did Mr. Potter inform you of his plan to put his name in the goblet?" Percy demanded.

Xander blinked, "You actually think Potter would put his name in that thing? Damn. I know you Gryff's don't have much rep for being bright, but you're the stupidest one I've seen yet… and given your brother Ron, that's an accomplishment."

"Oy!" Ron's voice called out from the other side of the hall as Percy shook in anger. "What the hell, Harris!?"

"Oh shut up, you're the only guy here who has cursed himself more than his opponents in a fight," Xander laughed, drawing snide snickers from the Slytherin table and a few others.

"You're disrespect for this gathering is noted, Mr. Harris," Percy bulled forward, "Now what did you mean when you said you warned Mr. Potter?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Harry told me this morning that he was happy that for once he wouldn't be the center attraction in this circus, he said he was looking forward to watching someone else be the hero for once. I told him right then that he'd just jinxed himself, and guess what Hermione? I was right, you were wrong! HA!"

Hermione glared at him from across the hall.

Percy was about to snap something when Dumbledore stepped in, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Mr. Harris, thank you for your thoughts on the matter. However, we have a problem to consider."

"Headmaster, I didn't do it!" Harry said, coming forward. "Sir, I don't really have to compete do I?"

Albus looked helplessly back at Bagman and Crouch.

"It is a magically binding contract." Crouch said, frowning.

"I see." Albus said slowly. He slowly turned to Harry, "I'll be looking into this Harry, be assured, however for the moment you should join the other champions."

"Sir?"

"Through this way, my boy," Ludo Bagman said, taking Harry by the shoulder and leading him away.

They walked away as the headmaster and the rest of the hall watched on.

* * *

For Harry it was a nightmare that just kept going on and on.

The room in which he met the 'other' champions felt claustrophobic, like the whole world was closing around on him. How did this keep happening to him anyway?

He should have known better, even Xander had known after all. He'd called it just that morning, knowing that somehow everything seemed to center around Harry. Every year had been like this, so why would this one be any different?

The other champions had reacted as one might expect, he supposed. That is to say, they acted with hostility. Even Cedric was fairly put out by his presence, though Harry had to admit that it wasn't to the same degree as the other two. He supposed that he couldn't really blame them, as much as he hated his fame he had recently been forced to acknowledge it more than he normally would.

Xander had told him something a few weeks earlier that refused to fade from his thoughts, as much as Harry tried to forget it.

He had said that Harry would have to use the Boy-Who-Lived fame to work in the favor of his family responsibilities, and when Harry had refused point blank Xander had simple said… Then you fail.

Since then he'd spent more than a few sleepless nights thinking about that as he tossed and turned.

With Harry James Potter in the TriWizard, well even as ignorant of public opinion as he was, Harry expected that the others would have a hard time getting much attention. Well, save perhaps Krum. Harry wasn't sure how that would play out, the Quidditch superstar might trump Harry's own fame, or people might manufacture a rivalry to entertain themselves with.

Harry frowned slightly at that thought as he sat back in the corner of the room and listened to Crouch drone on about the tasks ahead.

* * *

Wednesday approached the disaster site that was her normal table in the library with some trepidation, though she didn't let it filter out to her visible persona. She, instead, merely stopped and stared at Hermione until the other girl noted her and straightened up, startled.

"Oh!" Hermione gasped, then clapped a hand over her mouth. "You scared me."

"I am an Addams." Wednesday said with a slight twitch of a smile as she took a seat and glanced over the reams of paper sprawled across the table. "Law research?"

"Magical contracts." Hermione hissed softly. "They said that Harry had to compete, that it's a magically binding contract. But how can that be? I refuse to believe that he entered himself."

"I would not state the same, refusal to believe is a statement of faith, not fact…" Wednesday said thoughtfully, "However I highly doubt that Potter would enter his own name."

Hermione looked confused for a moment, before her mind decoded the statement and realized that it was a backhanded agreement. "Right. Well, there's nothing much here."

"I wouldn't expect otherwise." Wednesday said, glancing at the papers, "Those are all modern legal contract regulations. The Cup is an ancient artifact, it was created under the laws of Magic, not the laws of man."

"So it can force people into things against their will?"

Wednesday hesitated almost imperceptibly, "That Goblet was created during a time when few people were considered their own 'man', so to speak. Legally, should your liege place your name in, you would be bound by it."

"Harry isn't sworn to anyone," Hermione hissed.

"He is a student of Hogwarts," Wednesday corrected, "And a citizen of Great Britain."

Hermione blinked, then her eyes grew wider. "Oh Merlin… That means… any teacher or representative of the Ministry…?"

Wednesday nodded, "That is my guess, yes."

Hermione stared at the papers in shock, "Well… I suppose that rules out the students at least."

"As well as the foreign visitors. So," Wednesday continued thoughtfully, "That leaves the Hogwarts professors and the ministry delegation."

"I doubt the headmaster would do it, he looked as shocked as anyone." Hermione frowned, "also I don't think any of the teachers would either. They've been here long enough, if they wanted to hurt Harry they could have done it before."

"Professor Snape." Wednesday said, half smirking.

Hermione waved that aside, "He hates Harry, but doesn't want him dead. He's risked a lot to save him before."

Wednesday shrugged, "Alastor Moody."

"He seems a little extreme, I will admit, but what does he have to gain?"

"The motivations of murderers are infinitely complex, and infinitely creative." Wednesday smiled thoughtfully, "history teaches us this."

"Fine, Moody maybe. What about the Ministry delegation?"

"Crouch, Weasley, and Bagman." Wednesday said, thoughtfully. "I don't know Crouch or Bagman, Weasley is an imbecile, however I've never seen him be malicious."

"Me either." Hermione admitted, then flushed when she realized that she had just tacitly called Percy an imbecile. "Still, that's three names to research."

"There is also another possibility, Hermione." Wednesday said softly.

"Harry did NOT enter his own name." Hermione hissed.

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly. "I meant the Imperious, or another similar curse."

"Oh Merlin." Hermione groaned, "you don't think the cup would recognize that?"

"I do not know. However, if someone can be forced to enter a name while under compulsion…"

"There's no end to the suspect pool," Hermione groaned.

"Precisely."

Hermione paused, looking at Wednesday with slightly suspicious confusion, "How do you know so much about this?"

Wednesday shrugged, "The Addams Clan has collective learning methods, Hermione… and our libraries extend back to before the written word, as you know it."

Hermione blinked, jaw hanging open slightly, but managed to keep from totally blanking out. "But… even so, how could you possibly know about THIS? It's not something that comes up every day…"

"You may be surprised," the dark girl said in her customary coolness, "The Goblet of Fire is not the only artifact of its type. Once, they were quite common."

Hermione swallowed, rarely did Wednesday turn her coldness fully on to her friends.

"O… Once?" Hermione asked softly.

"What?"

"You said that once they were common? Not anymore."

Wednesday smiled, cold and dark, unlike even the snarkiest smile Hermione had ever seen in her before.

"There have been many organized attempts to destroy them in the past."

"Oh." Hermione said softly. "Why is this one still around then?"

"Because even we Addams' aren't perfect."


	89. Chapter 89

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Ronald Bilius Weasley was having a bad day.

His best mate somehow snuck his name into the Goblet without telling him, a snake Ron had thought might be sort of ok called him stupid, and damn it no one argued! Not even himself. Ron growled as he pushed pass the portrait, into the common room, and looked around.

The Gryff's present seemed to be waiting for something.

"What are you lot all doing here?" He muttered, glaring at the crowd that seemed to be filling every square foot of space available. He'd have to push through half a dozen people just to get to the stairs.

"What do you think, Ronnie?" Fred… or was it George? Said.

"We're here to greet our champion," George, or maybe Fred, continued in a swoon.

Ron grimaced as one twin caught the other, earning chuckles and giggles from the rest. "Harry's gonna go spar if you lot all jump him, you know that right?"

Soft murmurs began after he said that, and finally Katie Bell spoke up. "He's right, and you all know it. Alright, everyone, back away from the door a bit and let's clear some room."

Ron watched the motions for a bit, then just sighed and pushed his way through to the stairs where he headed up to his room.

When Harry walked in later he was, predictably, overwhelmed by the sudden press of people that rushed in on him despite the best efforts of the Twins, Angelina, and Katie. A few congratulations were quickly followed by inquiries that rapidly became demands to know how he had gotten his name through the protections.

"Are you all mental!?" Harry blew, pushing people back from the sheer force of his exclamation. "Put my name in? I didn't!"

Some of the more polite scoffed quietly, but not all were that restrained.

"Right, Potter." Cormac McLaggen said loud enough to echo, "Do we look stupid to you? You're just in this for the glory like every year."

Harry shot him a deadly look, but managed to fight down the urge to yell some more. "Believe what you want. I don't want any more to do with this stupid tournament than I want to do with you."

With that he pushed his way up the stairs, heading for his own room.

When he got there, Ron was laid out on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Hey Mate." Harry said tiredly, slumping on his bed.

"Hey." Ron said.

Harry was silent as he tried to process the events of the day, too stunned by everything to really let it settle. How was he supposed to get through something like the TriWizard? Hell, the only special spell he had in his corner was the Patronus and it wasn't like that was likely to be much use.

He was surprised when Ron spoke up again, startling him out of his worry.

"How'd you do it?"

"What?" Harry blinked, not understanding.

"Put your name in." Ron said, "Even the twins couldn't get past the age line."

"I didn't."

"Of course." Ron said quietly, then was quiet for a while. "You could have told me, you know."

"Told you what?" Harry shook his head, still completely lost.

"How you got past the line."

"I didn't!" Harry shouted, "Bloody Hell, Ron! Do you think I'm completely daft or something? What possible reason would I have to put my name in to this insanity!?"

"The glory and the prize…"

"Prize!? Glory!? Damn it, Ron!" Harry blasted, glaring over at his friend. "What do I need with either!?"

Ron snorted, "Yeah, good point. Must be nice being rich and famous."

"Stuff it, Ron." Harry growled, kicking out of his bed.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from you and the rest of the lot in this tower."

* * *

Xander was once again in the Room of Requirement, having set it in the research lab form that he had taken a liking too. In fact, he was already planning on recreating it when he got back home. This time, however, he was sitting at a drafting board as he sketched out a concept he was working with while trying to devise the arithmantic formula to make it happen.

He was so caught up in his work that he missed the door opening and someone coming in until Harry's voice echoed behind him.

"Cripes, Xan, what is that?"

Xander twisted, his Ollivander wand dropping into his hand on reflex before he recognized Harry. He stopped, then let out a breath, "Jesus, Harry. Don't DO that!"

"Sorry," Harry said sincerely. He hated it when people snuck up on him too, "I didn't mean to."

Xander shook his head, feeling his heartbeat calm down. "It's alright, I shouldn't have been so absorbed anyway."

"What is it?" Harry asked, cringing as he looked at the math Xander was working on. "That's the longest string of numbers I've ever seen."

Xander laughed, shaking his head, "Just working on a bit of spell creation. It's only a concept right now, which is why the formula looks so messy."

"You're making your own spells?" Harry asked, jaw dropping. "Brilliant."

"Not hardly," Xander sighed, "It's a damn mess. I've got an idea, but turning it into a real spell is really complicated. First you have to describe the spell, arithmantically."

"That's where you get the insanely long string of numbers, I suppose."

"That's only for one part of the spell, I've got three insanely long strings of numbers to put together."

"Bloody hell."

"Pretty much," Xander said, pushing away from the drafting board, "anyway, what brings you down here?"

"I needed to get out of Gryffindor tower," Harry confessed. "Half them are congratulating me on sneaking my name in, the other half are angry I didn't tell them how to do it."

Xander shrugged, "You're surprised? They're just thinking about what they would have done, that's all. They don't know you, mate, the school doesn't know you. You've spent three years hiding."

"Oi! I have not!" Harry objected.

"Name one time, other than Quidditch, that you've stepped up and let anyone know you… without someone trying to kill you first," Xander smirked.

Harry scowled at him, "Shove off."

"Truth hurts, don't it?" Xander said. "Look, I'm not the one to talk to about this junk anyway. Have you tried calling Sirius? Or maybe using your copy of the Grimoire? Mrs. Malfoy can help you with that whole 'act like a stuck-up lord' thing."

Harry glared at Xander as the other boy grinned back, then finally sighed and shook his head. "No I haven't. I'll talk to them tonight, if I can."

"Good. So what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About the tournament, twit." Xander chuckled.

Harry sighed, much annoyed but at the same time unable to be really angry, "Try to keep my head attached and my blood all inside where it's supposed to be."

"Sounds like an excellent start, any ideas how you plan on accomplishing it?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Can you help me with my dueling some more?"

Xander nodded, "Sure, no prob, mate."

"Thanks."

* * *

Xander felt like a mound of bruises when he got up, his dueling with Harry rapidly becoming a chore right up there with calling Chayton derogatory names before a lesson.

' Really shouldn't have brought that bludgeoning curse to the field, ' Xander sighed as he forced himself to stretch out his sore and bruised muscles.

Unlike the Reductor, a modification of the Reducio charm, the Impingo was a modification of the banishing charm. Instead of applying force evenly, like the Depulso, the Impingo snap released the spell's energy into a single point. The result was an effective shield breaker, and felt roughly like getting worked over by Mike Tyson when cast on you by someone with Harry's power.

Or, as Sam would tell him constantly after Chayton beat him into the ground, good training.

Fuck Sam.

Xander slowly pulled himself into his robes, moving with a stiffness he hadn't felt since early in the summer, and got his books together for classes before heading out to the common room. Somedays he really had to wonder at the directions his life had taken.

"Harris."

Xander groaned, mostly NOT from the pain in his muscles. "What is it, Draco?"

"Here." Draco smirked, handing him something.

Xander looked down at the button curiously, "What's this?"

"My little gift to Potter." Draco said, still smirking insanely as far as Xander was concerned.

Xander read the button, noting that it said 'Support Cedric Diggory, Hogwarts REAL Champion', and shrugged. "So? Harry would probably wear this."

Draco's smirk widened, "Check again."

Xander blinked and looked down, noting with surprise that the text was changing until it morphed into an inspiring 'Potter Stinks'. Xander sighed, "Brilliant, Draco. Come up with that bit yourself?"

"As a matter of fact I did."

Xander shook his head and shoved the badge back at Draco, "Thanks, but no."

"You can't say no!"

Xander slumped, then looked back at Draco. "Dude. I'm half asleep, I feel like I called Mike Tyson a sissy to his face, and I just want to get some food before class. You want to explain why I can't say no, please? And keep it simple."

"You're a Slytherin, we have to show a united face to the enemy!"

"Harry's not my enemy, number one. Two, it's because I'm a Slytherin that I won't touch that button, and three… who elected you president anyway?"

"What are you talking about? Potter's a Gryffindor! This is the perfect time to put him in his place," Draco insisted, "He had to cheat Dumbledore's age line to get in!"

"So? Half the school cheered the Twins for trying just that, and the rest cheered the other five idiots who made the attempt." Xander countered, "What you're saying is that Potter is more skilled than all of them, and because of THAT we should piss him off? Survival isn't a trait your family selected for, is it?"

"Don't talk about my family, Harris!"

Xander sighed, shaking his head, "Besides. I know, and I'm pretty sure you know, that Harry didn't put his name in. You're not that stupid."

"So what?" Draco sneered, "It's an opportunity. We take it."

"And just how long do you think it'll stay a secret that someone is trying to kill Potter this year, Draco? When it comes out, and it WILL come out, I'm not going to look like an idiot for wearing one of those damn things." Xander grumbled, pushing past Draco. "You need to start thinking long term, Draco."

"Come back here, Harris!" Draco yelled as Xander left the common room.

Behind them, neither boy noticed many Slytherins look at the badges in the hands and quietly drop the offending items into the trash as they too went on their way.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy frowned thoughtfully as she read the latest notations in the Grimoire. They were some of the first bits added by young Mr. Potter, and she was deliberating how to respond to them.

It was obvious that the boy was, once more, at the center of events. Honestly, she was beginning to believe that someone had cursed the boy, or maybe even the family. His father hadn't been much better, and neither had his paternal grandfather come to think of it. Thrust into the international limelight, however, was another level entirely and as the Regent Black this was a serious issue.

Of course, it did provide certain… opportunities, she decided.

First, he wasn't publically acknowledged as Regent as of yet, so he could always be disavowed if things went entirely pear shaped. Though she'd have to be careful how she sold THAT idea to Sirius, Narcissa knew. That said, if he came out respectably, the power of the family would be enhanced quite nicely.

The trick was going to be gaining control of the situation before…

"Cissa."

The sound of her cousin's voice startled her for a moment, but Narcissa quickly plucked up the small mirror she kept near the Grimoire and looked into it. "Sirius."

"Have you heard? I assume you have." The Lord Black in Exile demanded as he glared up out of the mirror.

"Of course I have," She drawled, her tone dry. "I was just contemplating how to respond."

"I'm coming home."

"Don't be an idiot." She snapped, glaring at the mirror. "What can you do?"

"I can be there for Harry!"

"As what? His pet dog?" She sneered, "There's nothing you can do. The goblet has him locked into competing, which I will admit is a rather… disconcerting situation."

"Disconcerting!?"

"Yes. The tournament itself is beyond our control, however. We shall have to trust that Dumbledore hasn't completely lost what mind he had and can still protect the boy to some degree." Narcissa sighed, "The tasks themselves are outside our control entirely. He must compete."

"Damn it, Cissa! What the hell are you talking about? We can't let this happen…"

"His magic and his life are bound to this, fool." She snapped icily. "If he doesn't, the best case result is that the boy lives as a squib."

"Better that than dead," Sirius snapped in reply, though his voice didn't have as much confidence as earlier.

"Perhaps, but I suspect that unless he does something incredibly stupid, death is a highly unlikely outcome. They're not looking for that kind of publicity from this," She countered. "What we have to do is get control of the situation outside the tournament."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Press, Sirius. The boy is a naïve innocent," She replied, "It's charming really, but the press will eat him alive. I've already learned that Rita Skeeter has been assigned by the Prophet."

"Skeeter?" Sirius frowned, then paled, "That GOSSIP? She's a reporter now? Oh lord."

"Yes," Narcissa said dryly. "The international press will likely be out for blood as well, if only because the boy is British. Though his fame will give him some cushion there, unless he does something scandalous, at which point they'll cheerfully eat him alive."

"Oh this just gets better and better," Sirius groaned. "Why am I not coming over there again?"

"Because you getting arrested and sentenced to the kiss, while certainly distracting, will hardly do him any good."

"Fine, fine. What do you suggest?" Sirius asked finally, honestly at a loss in this situation.

"I'm still contemplating options." She sighed, "This isn't a situation I have intimate knowledge of. Ideally, he needs some sort of handler or secretary to keep Skeeter in line. I'm almost tempted to pull some strings and get Lockhart out of Azkaban, however despite how well that fool handled the press I doubt he has much love for Potter at the moment."

"I suppose just paying them off is out of the question?"

Narcissa laughed lightly at her cousin, "Oh my, how the Gryffindors mane has darkened. No, if it were strictly local, that might be an option, but this event is too large. Our young Regent needs a Press Secretary."

"Fine." Sirius sighed. "Who?"

* * *

Harry had had better days.

A few Gryffindors, most of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, though oddly enough only a small portion of Slytherin were sporting those damned buttons. It felt like second year all over again, only this time he was the cheat instead of the heir of Slytherin. Seeing Potter Stinks over and over again was really annoying, and he found himself on the verge of losing his temper more than once through the day.

Hermione was with him, at least, while Ron was… well, Ron mostly. The redhead was more than a little put out that Harry hadn't told him how to get past the age line, but at least he wasn't wearing one of those damned buttons and Harry had even walked in on him growling at a Puff over them. So, while they weren't good at the moment, Harry figured they would be.

It was just so STUPID, though.

No one seemed to give a damn that there were FOUR people in the bloody TRI wizard tournament! If he'd just put his name in, wouldn't there only be three champions? You'd think that would be proof enough for them, but of course it was never that simple.

Harry really had had better days.

"Mr. Potter."

He half turned to see Professor McGonagall approaching him. "Yes Ma'am?"

"You have a visitor, please go to the headmaster's office. I believe that the Headmaster particularly enjoys Whoppers this evening."

"Uh… Yes Ma'am." Harry said, hurrying away.

He got to the headmaster's office a few minutes later, having been slowed down when the stairs decided he should be on the fourth floor for some bizarre reason. After giving the password, Harry hurried up the stairs and entered to find the Headmaster behind his desk, chatting with a woman Harry didn't know.

"Ah, Harry. Welcome. There's someone here to see you," Albus said with a smile.

The woman turned around, rising to her feet.

"Mr. Potter, my name is Andromeda Tonks. My cousin Sirius asked me to meet with you."


	90. Chapter 90

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Dumbledore was perplexed.

It was an unusual feeling for the man, one that he didn't much care for. The young man currently under his protection was now in a meeting with someone he didn't have a great deal of influence over, and the damnable thing about it was that he didn't know how he felt about that.

That was truly maddening.

In most situations Dumbledore at the very least had a clear idea of whether the situation was something he approved of, or disapproved of, as the case may be. He didn't always have the ability to change the situation, but knowing if it was good or bad let him make appropriate decisions. In this case, however, he was flying blind.

Andromeda Tonks was a fine member of society, he knew for a fact. Her beliefs were a patchwork of the traditional and the radical, much the same as his own public stance. Privately, Albus knew that he was likely more conservative than Andromeda, by virtue of his age if nothing else. That said, she was certainly a representative of Sirius Black and for that alone he could, no actually he was legally obligated to refuse her.

That said, Albus had never been one too concerned with legalities. In theory the rule of law was all that held society together, in practice… well, it was another thing entirely in his experience. When it served the greater good, he would put aside the law as needed.

What perplexed him, in this case, was that he was in the unusual position of not knowing what the woman's presence served.

Certainly, Harry had urgent need of services that he as Headmaster could not safely offer. Albus knew that he didn't have the time to intercede on the young man's behalf when it came to the press, let along the time it would take to instruct Harry on dealing with the more vile habits they exhibited. Indeed, that was a skill that he himself had never really honed to the level he showed in other areas.

For the most part, to be honest, Albus could admit that he had little skill with the press. Most of his ability in that area stemmed largely from his political power and reputations, something young Harry couldn't truly wield at this point in his life.

The flip side of the issue was that Albus had no true influence over Andromeda. Oh, she wasn't an enemy to be sure, but she was like all the Black family. Fiercely independent, and willing to put everything on the line when she decided on the position she was prepared to defend.

Sirius had done so when he accepted the role of decoy for the Potters, and his brother Regulus had by all accounts earned the wrath of the Dark Lord himself for some reason that remained uncertain. What Dumbledore did know of Regulus' fate was that he had broke from the Dark Lord quite loudly in his final days, though that was a fact known only to very few.

That very quality made the Black's a dangerous quantity. Bellatrix sided with the Dark Lord with a fierceness that became legendary within her own lifetime, her fervor being mistaken for insanity to most. Perhaps it was, Albus supposed, fanaticism certainly held many of the qualities of insanity. The point, however, was that when a Black took a stand it often took soul shattering events to change their path.

And therein lay the crux of his current dilemma.

What side was Andromeda taking? And how would it affect Harry and, more importantly, the future plans Albus was attempting to bring to fruition?

The Headmaster sighed, shaking his head. All this and he had yet to have his meeting with Severus. He could feel a headache coming on.

* * *

Harry watched the woman closely as she cast several privacy charms.

Andromeda Black was older than her sister, but the difference was hardly significant. Her hair was a dirty sort of blond that had different hues in different places, much darker than Narcissa's, and she herself had a stern sort of look about her that reminded Harry was professor McGonagall.

"There," She said as she finished, "That will keep out the riff raff at least, though the Headmaster no doubt is getting a word for word transcription."

"What?" Harry gaped.

"You didn't know?" She asked, a little surprised. "What, with Sirius and your family's notes from school I'd have expected you to know that the classrooms and common areas are all monitored by fairly extensive wards. As best as anyone's been able to tell he doesn't spy on private areas, but you aren't likely to slip much past him in the public areas… well, not if he is looking anyway."

"Oh? He has to be looking?"

"More or less, there isn't much in the way of warding or charms that records information from wards," Andromeda answered as she took a seat across from Harry. "And it would be practically impossible to wade through all the information a ward system gathered anyway, unless you broke it up into smaller pieces, which is something the Founders did NOT do. So, even if you did record all the information, you'd have to filter through the lump sum of the entire ward which, for a castle this size, is a lot of information."

"I see." Harry said, nodding. He wasn't sure he saw it all, but it did make sense to him.

"Now, on to business?"

Harry nodded.

"I was contacted by my Sister, who is in contact with our Cousin, the Lord Black in Exile." Andromeda said calmly. "They are under the impression that you are in need of some help."

Harry groaned, rolling his eyes, "Since when am I not?"

Her lips twitched upward slightly, "Yes well, in this case they are referring to the current situation. Specifically, public relations as it were."

"Public relations? This isn't about magic training?" Harry sighed, not expecting it to be, but he could hope.

"Not really my area, Harry." She smiled softly. "I'm many things, some of them quite nasty, but I've never been either an Auror or a combatant of any kind. No, they're concerned about how this tournament will affect your image."

"I don't care about none of that!" Harry blurted, coming to his feet. "I just want to be left alone!"

"Hardly the attitude of a Regent, or a Knight." She responded acerbically. "This tournament holds risks, and potential rewards. Since you're locked into it, I suggest we make the most of things, shall we?"

"A thousand galleons and a trophy are hardly worth this mess." Harry grumbled.

"I should hope not." She told him flatly. "You're a Potter, and you represent the House of Black. Those pittances are for common folk to see and aspire to, for such as us the rewards are far more valuable."

"Like?"

"I suppose it is too much to ask, but pretend you were a Slytherin for a moment," She sighed, "What potential do you see?"

Harry frowned, not liking the request. He didn't exactly believe that all Slytherins were evil or anything, but he didn't like the mindset that even 'good' Slytherins seemed to hold dear. He sighed, and thought about it.

"I suppose that the spotlight could be turned to advantage."

"That's one. Another?"

Harry frowned, "Well I'm excused from a lot of classes, and my school year is going to be much lighter I guess."

"Too small, Mr. Potter." She chastised him, "think beyond your year."

"You mean to the other champions? They're in other years, I guess," Harry went on, puzzled and not noticing the slight shake of her head. "Cedric seems like a good bloke, but I don't know anything about Fleur. Viktor is pretty important, I guess knowing him could be useful…"

Andromeda blinked, wondering for a moment how he'd taken her instructions entirely incorrectly, and yet arrived at the salient point anyway.

"Well, your thinking is markedly obtuse, however you did reach part of the point I was making," She said finally. "Yes, Viktor Krum may well be an important contact. Especially if you choose to pursue a career in Quidditch or Politics when you graduate. Miss Delacour and Mr. Diggory both have fathers who have strong ties to their respective governments, as another example. Additionally, you will have the chance to interact with the Minister for Magic of Great Britain, France, and Bulgaria. For any normal student, this would be a great chance to petition for a way to fast track their career. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded.

"Now, for yourself, on the other hand… the stakes are much, much more interesting."

Harry frowned, "But… how?"

"As the Boy Who Lived, you already have a certain pull in these circles. As a Champion of the Tri Wizard you will have the chance to increase that pull significantly, on several orders of magnitude beyond what any of the others have." She told him, folding her hands in her lap. "Played properly, you could wield great influence in not one, but potentially three magical governments."

Harry stared at her in shock.

"And THAT is a prize a Potter or the representative of the Blacks, should consider well worth their time."

* * *

In the Headmaster's Office, Albus was sitting with Severus Snape for their scheduled meeting. His attention was only partially on the head of Slytherin, however, as he was also listening in to Harry's meeting with Andromeda.

' Blast. ' He curled his lips sourly, ' Did she have to tell him about the wards? '

"Headmaster?"

"What? Oh, I do apologize, Severus. I'm slightly distracted today."

"I could return later, if you prefer."

Albus shook his head, calmly popping a lemon drop into his mouth. "No, no. This is important as well. I noticed earlier today that very few of your house were wearing those… interesting buttons."

"Ah yes," Severus smiled thinly. "Potter stinks. A little more childish than I would prefer, but amusing."

"Yes, yes, Severus." Dumbledore said with a smile, "I'm well aware of your thoughts on the Potter family. However, I was surprised by the lack of buttons in your house."

"As was I." Snape admitted. "I made some inquiries and found that Draco made the unfortunate error of offering a badge to Mr. Harris."

"Indeed?" Albus blinked, "And how would that have such an effect?"

"As much as I despise saying this about my Godson, Harris fills the mold of the Slytherin ideal far better in some ways. He's not remotely a perfect model, the boy is too utterly obtuse to his influence for that, but he does wield a great deal of influence in my house." Snape admitted. "When he rejected the button, most of the house followed his example."

"I see." Dumbledore said, debating the situation.

It wasn't clear cut by any means. Certainly, any influence in Harry's favor was going to hold positive elements. On the other hand, Slytherin moving in unpredictable directions would make it difficult to prepare future plans, and perhaps more ominously, a Slytherin rarely accumulated power without using it to their benefit.

Until the end of the previous year, he hadn't given any further thought to Mr. Harris, despite his help with the Chamber of Secrets in his second year. That was perhaps proving to be a mistake, Dumbledore supposed. While he hadn't paid attention, the young boy had clearly begun to wield influence beyond that of the Pureblood faction that traditionally held sway.

In fact, if what he had seen, and what Severus said was true… it was even possible that Mr. Harris was wielding power beyond that of Tom Riddle during his school days.

And that was a truly frightening thought.

* * *

One thing about the whole TriWizard stuff, Xander had to admit, it had taken a lot of the pressure off the school year so far. Only potions and transfigurations were unaffected, which really meant that only Transfigurations was a problem since Potions was basically self-study anyway. Professor Snape's teaching method meant that there wasn't really much to do beyond brew and write up a few feet of parchment on the potion in question.

It made the class predictable and more than a little dull, but also easy at least for a Slytherin.

The rest of the teachers were star struck and more than a little distracted, which meant that classes were easy and homework was light.

That meant that he had time to do his own stuff.

His new spell was a dead end, unfortunately. The Arithmancy involved was interminably long, and had eaten up fully half of one of his notebooks already, without any sign of being complete. Error checking was a nightmare and a half, and he was really sick of math.

So he had moved on to spatial compression charms, chapter thirty three of the Grimoire.

For the moment he was planning the job, since he didn't want to accidentally invert space inside whatever he was expanding. That could be messy from what he was reading. That left him sitting at his normal table in the library, with an explosion of books and papers radiating out from him in all directions, when Wednesday and Hermione arrived.

"Merlin Xander," Hermione breathed, "What happened?"

"Huh?" He looked up, confused.

"I believe that she is referring to the ubiquitous pile of papers, books, and notes?" Wednesday clarified, supposedly, as she sat down.

"Buh?" Xander blinked, more confused.

The girls ignored his plight as Hermione pulled his arithmancy notebook over to herself and glanced through it. She frowned, then began to read closer. "Is this… are you…?"

The bushy haired girl looked up, eyes focusing on Xander as she waited for an answer.

"Guh?"

There was a long silence, before Wednesday finally sighed.

"I believe he is asking what you're asking."

"Oh. Uh," Hermione blushed, "This looks like Spell Crafting notes."

"Oh, yeah." Xander nodded, "Just something I'm tinkering with."

"It's incredibly…" Hermione blinked, flipping through page after page of equations, "Convoluted."

"Tell me about it. I wrote it and I can't bloody well understand it." Xander snorted, "It started out as such a simple concept too."

"What is the concept?" Hermione asked, frowning, "This looks like a Protego spell?"

"You can recognize that just by the numbers?" Xander asked, incredulously.

She blushed, "I'm thinking about going into spell creation after Hogwarts, so I was doing some research."

"Impressive." Wednesday said quietly, glancing at the daunting series of numbers.

"Shyeah." Xander said in agreement. "Cool stuff, Herms."

Hermione ducked her head, hiding her blush by focusing on the numbers. She idly plucked out her quill and made some corrections as she read. "You reversed some of the numbers, Xander."

"Hang on, I know I did it intentionally," He held out his hand to stop her.

"You did? But why? This will change the shape of the shield… You're going to lose coverage."

"Yeah, I know. I was reading about tank design at the end of World War Two when I designed it." Xander explained, " I want to test an angled shield."

"Oh." Hermione looked it over again, then scratched out her corrections. "Sorry. Do you really think that angling the field will make that much of a difference?"

Xander shrugged, "not sure, but that's only half the design, check out page eight."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and flipped through the pages, reading quickly. After a moment she frowned, puzzled, "Xander… these are conjuration equations."

"Right, I know."

"But… Xander, this is going to be a really hard spell to cast." She said.

Xander nodded glumly. "Yeah, I know."

"Compressing this to a workable equation is going to be a challenge," Wednesday said from where she was looking over Hermione's arm. "We'll have to reduce the equations before you can try coupling them to an incantation."

"We?" Xander asked, blinking.

"Of course."

"Cool." He smiled.

Things were looking up.

* * *

This entire year was becoming entirely too complicated for Albus' tastes, which even he had to admit meant things were insanely complicated. The Tri Wizard was supposed to be a, relatively simple, tournament. Simple for his abilities, that is.

Now, however, he had young Harry somehow entered into a binding contract to compete, which was entirely outside his planning. That said, enemy action always was. He'd been expecting a move soon, but had hoped that he would be able to counter it appropriately. Instead, he found himself in the position of not only being unable to counter anything, but in fact he didn't even understand the nature of the move itself.

Why enter Harry in the tournament?

If the plot was to kill the poor boy there were far easier methods.

Albus sighed, shaking his head slowly. He didn't know far too many things about the current situation.

For example, he didn't know… or at least he didn't understand the involvement of Andromeda Tonks. Not entirely, at least. Certainly, it was clear that Sirius was concerned about his Godson, and given what he knew about the man Albus was inclined to allow the indirect contact. Andromeda's insistence that Harry represented House Black, however, was a disturbing revelation.

He was certain that she meant it as a mere abstract, given that Sirius was considered the Lord Black and Harry was his Godson, though few people in Britain realized it. Should Sirius think to make it official, well that was a worrisome possibility. Thankfully, Sirius was far to distanced from his family name to think of that.

Albus did curse Fudge to a degree, if only because with Sirius out of Britain he was effectively out of control. Albus could call on his position in the ICW to reign the man in, but that was a dangerous tool to use, for using it too much made its power evident to all.

And now, of all things, he had this new worry within Slytherin to deal with.

On the surface it seemed a minor thing, indeed in fact it was a minor item to be honest. The problem was that it was a minor pebble in a sandal that Albus himself had chosen to wear quite some time ago and it was now raising a rather annoying blister on his proverbial foot.

Slytherin was a house that needed careful handling, its deep connections with the powerful pureblood faction of the Wizarding World made it a potential crisis point that simply HAD to be watched. Unpredictable actions within the house made for a great deal of potential trouble.

The Harris boy was throwing a great deal of calculations to the wind, much to Albus' chagrin, by simply doing what he apparently felt was right instead of what was easy. According to Severus, the boy appeared entirely ignorant of his influence within the house, which was almost unbelievable to Albus.

He was then left with two possibilities, first Severus was right and the boy was some foolish child who didn't know what he was accomplishing or, and this was something that frightened him greatly, the boy knew what he was doing and had fooled the likes of Severus Snape, a man long acquainted with the underhanded trappings of power hungry individuals.

Both were difficult to believe, but the second was entirely too fearsome a prospect to ignore.

With a sigh of a man who had too much already on his shoulders Albus resolved to watch Harris more closely.

* * *

Andromeda Tonks smiled to herself as she left the school.

The boy wasn't a complete idiot, though he was almost entirely ignorant. From what Cissy told her, and she was able to gather on her own, that was far from his fault. Being raised by those muggles would have left the best person woefully unprepared for the life of a pureblood regent, but from what she could tell he wasn't a hopeless cause.

There was a functioning mind in there, no matter how much the boy tried to hide it, so she was encouraged.

With Sirius free of that horrible prison and, more importantly, innocent of the charges he'd been accused the family had a head again. The boy was a clumsy choice for a regent, but he had time. Three years, to be precise. Three years to become proficient at a game most people learned from the moment they could sit at their parent's knee.

Andromeda Tonks nee Black smiled to herself.

She did so love a challenge.


	91. Chapter 91

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

When Harry was pulled out of potions class for the wand weighing ceremony he was understandably nervous, following Collin to where things had been setup he felt entirely out of his depth and was dreading every step that brought him closer to dealing with events he didn't understand. On arrival, however, he immediately noted Andromeda Tonks standing in the corner of the room, and she nodded to him.

The weight he felt lift from him then was incalculable. Someone was there for him.

An adult even.

It was really the first time in his life, barring maybe Hagrid's intervention on his eleventh birthday, that he could remember an adult really stepping in on his side of matters. More importantly, she didn't just happen to be there. She had told him she would be there, and she actually followed through.

In his experience, no one did that. At least, no adults. Hermione did, of course, and he tried to. Ron had, though lately Ron wasn't exactly on his side anymore. Xander did as well, and he brought Wednesday. But an adult?

Harry suddenly relaxed, despite the wash of attention flooding over him and forced a smile. He wasn't alone in this, at least not entirely.

From her vantage point, Andromeda watched the young man as he was mobbed by the press and ministry, some Aurors actually holding back the lad's fans as he was guided to the wand weighing platform. He'd looked a wreck as he walked in, and she hadn't needed to even touch on her modest skill in Legilimency to read his thoughts then.

The change he'd experienced when he'd noticed her, however, was nothing short of shocking. It was almost pathetic, the sheer sense of relief he'd felt, that had actually washed through the boy and into the room. Hades below! His sudden relief and relaxation had actually impacted the audience!

Andromeda focused on the crowd for a moment, noting that they had suddenly hushed and were murmuring happily. He had! Harry's little burst of emotion had quieted the entire room, and it had been unintentional at that.

' That's not a Potter trait… ' She thought as she moved closer to keep an eye on her charge. ' Empathic projection? Something else? Possibly just accidental magic, but lord if that's the case the boy must be as powerful as Merlin himself. '

She shelved those thoughts in her Occlumency inspired mental library, keeping them on an easily accessible shelf, and sharpened her focus on the boy himself. He was now approaching Ollivander to have his wand weighed, and she could see Skeeter moving in for the kill.

"Mr. Potter, a moment please! I'd like an interview with the Champions… why don't we go somewhere quieter…" Rita was saying as Andromeda appeared behind her, attracting Harry's attention.

She subtly shook her head.

"Uh, no I don't think so Miss, uh?"

"Skeeter, Rita Skeeter young man." The woman in question said, an acid green quill appearing in her hand. "Just a few questions then."

The quill in question jumped to action, animated by its own internal magic, as Rita began to speak. Andromeda, familiar enough with the infernal device, lazily let her wand snap out as she intoned a Finite.

Rita hissed, turning on her, "What do you think you're doing!? That's private property!"

"And I speak for the Regent Black." Andromeda countered coldly. "Watch where you're playing Rita, lest you find yourself in the path of your betters and… shall we say, get stepped on?"

Rita paled slightly, taking half a step back.

"B… Black? There's no Lord Black…"

"Oh, but there is. Gringotts international and the ICW have confirmed Sirius Black as the Lord Black. His status in Britain is that of an Exiled Lord. I believe that you'll find that all Black accounts are fully active once more, and a Regent has been appointed."

"Preposterous! Black is a convicted…"

Andromeda cut her off, a shark like smile sending shivers down Rita's smile. "You can't be convicted if you're not given a trial, Rita."

Rita swallowed, her mouth dry. "No trial?"

"Really, Skeeter," Andromeda said coldly, "You shouldn't be so closed to what's going on outside of Britain. That story made the rounds *weeks* ago."

Rita's mind was whirring, if what she was being told was true the impact potential was enormous. The ministry hadn't given Black a trial? Granted, they weren't legally *required* to do so, Rita was fully aware of that aspect of Wizarding law, but it was bad form to say the least. Especially when dealing with a Lord or Heir of a major house.

That wasn't to say that it wasn't done, it had happened before many times in history, but all those times had certain elements in common. Generally they only happened with the person in question was considered too dangerous to leave free, despite a lack of proof. In fact, the last time it had happened to her knowledge was several hundred years earlier and under the order of the muggle King.

The other thing those instances held in common was that it was extremely bad form to ever let them escape. Generally when that happened, bad things were soon to happen to the people responsible for the incarceration.

Following that logic, Rita found herself suddenly unwilling to attract too much attention from Lord Black, exile notwithstanding.

"I see…" She said slowly, drawing out a normal quill from her pouch. "Well… I'll look into those allegations, Andromeda. In the meantime, I do have an interview to conduct?"

Andromeda smiled thinly, recognizing the capitulation and the request for permission. "Of course, so long as Mr. Potter has no objections."

Harry blinked, stumped for a moment as the attention slipped back in his direction. Making a note to ask Andromeda what exactly all that had been about, specifically, he nodded. "Of course."

Rita carefully gripped her quill, a little unfamiliar with using one the proper way by this time, but determined not to test the patience of the Black representative. At least not until she had a chance to confirm what had been said.

With that thought in mind she began asking questions.

* * *

After the ceremony and pomp, Harry took a moment to speak to Andromeda.

"Really, what was that all about with the reporter?"

"Skeeter?" Andromeda asked, sneering slightly, "She's a bottom feeder, but a popular quill for the highest bidder. Generally that means Malfoy, in case you were wondering."

"Oh." Harry had a sinking feeling.

"Don't worry about it. She won't be getting any money from Lucius to smear you, not with Cissy on your side," Andromeda permitted herself a smile. "That, combined with the threat of the Black holdings, will keep her honest at least."

"Oh."

Honestly, Harry didn't really know what to think about that.

"Now, I'll be around for all the public events," Andromeda promised Harry, "or I'll send someone who can stand in for me. But be careful around school and in Hogsmeade, Harry. These types are gutter trash by nature, they'll be around whether you see them or not."

"They will?" Now that was something Harry did know what to think about, and he really didn't like it. "Crap."

"Indeed." Andromeda smiled, "Don't fret too much, child. You'll do fine."

Harry's expression didn't change, which just seemed to amuse Andromeda more than anything else as the two walked away from the hall.

* * *

"Press, huh?" Xander asked, breathlessly, as he threw himself to one side to avoid a stunner. He'd learned the hard way not to try and shield against Harry's stunners, the damn things had to be armor piercing or something.

Harry nodded, flipping his hair back as he danced to once side to avoid the jinxes Xander sent his way, "Yeah. Mrs. Tonks is scary when she's angry."

Xander laughed, rolling to his feet and coming up firing. "You just described every girl I know."

Harry twisted, not able to answer as he realized that he'd been bracketed. He threw up a shield, but it was hammered down in a second as Xander's last three stunners slammed home. The red flash was the last thing he remembered until he was enervated.

"Damn," He moaned, being helped to his feet. "Every time I think I've got you, you pull something like that."

Xander just grinned, "Harry, what can I say? You inspire me to new levels of effort, I'll do anything it takes to kick your ass."

"How did I get so bloody lucky?" Harry grumbled, shaking his head. "Alright, show me how you pulled that last sequence off."

Xander nodded and the two moved from the practical to the theoretical as they cooled off from the practice. Xander wasn't kidding when he told Harry that he was inspired to new levels of effort, though, he thought ruefully. In order to stay just one step ahead of the boy he was forced to practice new moves practically daily, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep it up.

"You know anything about your first task in the tournament?" he asked as they worked.

Harry shook his head, "No. All I know is that I'm getting my arse kicked by someone my age, so how bloody screwed am I against Krum and Diggory?"

Xander chuckled, earning himself a dark look. "Not worried about Fleur?"

Harry shuddered, "If you think I'm barmy enough to take her on, you're dumber than you look. Give me Krum or Diggory any day. That girl makes me think of a female Malfoy, you know if Malfoy was competent."

"I think that's a little harsh," Xander laughed, "What did she ever do to you?"

"She called me a 'leetle boy'," Harry replied sourly, earning him another crowing laugh from Xander, much to his annoyance.

* * *

Dragons.

Harry had an urge welling up inside him, telling him to just curl and up and cry. It would feel so damned good. Of course he wasn't going to do that, but damned if he didn't want to sometimes.

Ron had come through, finally, the semi-git had delivered a message that had brought Harry to Hagrid and the source of his current fear.

Freaking DRAGONS.

He was a kid for merlin's sake! What did he know about dragons? It was insane!

Ok, curling up and crying was out, but the second urge was to howl at the moon or something. That was a distinct possibility.

Harry just didn't know how he kept getting into these sorts of spots.

* * *

"Dragons?"

Hermione sounded, and in fact was, horrified. How could they let dragons loose on students?

"Harsh." Xander whistled softly. "I don't know any spells that are going to help you with this one, mate."

Harry nodded miserably. "Moody says I should play to my strengths."

Xander snorted.

"What's so funny?" Harry scowled.

"Well, you only have two options, right? You're strengths, or your opponents weaknesses. Given that it's freakin dragons, you're not going to find too many of the latter." Xander snickered. "So I guess you'd better play to your strengths."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Thanks for the words of wisdom."

"Anyway," Hermione sighed, "So what strengths do we play to?"

"We can safely rule out potion making," Xander smirked.

"Not helping." Hermione scowled.

Xander just smirked again and shrugged, but otherwise stayed silent.

"Harry, you're a great flyer," Hermione said, thinking hard.

"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to bring my broom."

"You get to keep your wand, right? Summon it." Xander said, "Your Accio charm is scary powerful, I should know you practically took a wall down with one the other day."

"See?" Hermione asked enthusiastically, "You can summon your broom!"

"And outfly a dragon?" Wednesday asked softly.

The others turned to look at her, but she merely shrugged slightly.

"The air is their element, as much as the flame." She said, looking at Harry. "Make no mistake… Harry... you're a natural flyer, but are you that confident?"

Harry grimaced, thinking about it. With his wand and his broom… maybe. Just maybe, he didn't know.

"He can pull it off." Xander said quietly. "My money says he can anyway."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "Really, and you know dragons so well?"

"No, not at all." Xander said, "but I know Harry's skill and power."

"Xander, I can't even beat you in a duel." Harry blinked.

Xander snorted, "Harry… I cheat."

The look of shock and betrayal on Harry's face was so profound that Wednesday couldn't help but smile.

"You… wha? But how?" Harry stammered out.

"If I told you that I'd have to figure out another way to cheat, dude."

"Bu… uh… but…"

"As amusing as this is," Wednesday broke in, "I believe we may be straying from the subject at hand. I'll concede that Alexander may be correct, however I would like to point out that your flying ability and raw power are not your only strengths."

"They're not?" Harry asked, blinking, "Wait… what raw power?"

The Addams scion sighed, a long suffering sigh. "If we were at my home, I would strap you to one of our play tables for stupidity of that level."

Xander winced, though the other two just looked confused.

Wednesday elected not to bother clarifying the comment, "Harry, you're a Parselmouth."

Hermione gasped, eyes wide. "You are?"

"Shh…" Harry hissed, "Ron said that it's a dark wizard thing, I don't need that kind of attention."

"Ron is an idiot." Wednesday said simply. "It's a blood line trait, most notably from the Slytherin bloodline in England, however it's been known in several other families as well."

"Really? Like who?"

"Asclepius from Greece would be the most notable, his line used serpens and vipera based magic as a healing tool. In Cambodia, the Shiwin Wei line used it for the potent protection magic snakes can provide, as did the Egyptians. Serpent magic is very old, one of the oldest branches of magic that exists," She said seriously, "and as such it has a deep well of power, from both the light and the dark. Serpents are by their nature, neutral predators. Good and Evil are human inventions."

The three others stared at her, open mouthed.

"What?" Wednesday asked after a long pause, when it became clear that none of the others were going to say anything.

"It's just… we've never heard you talk so much before." Xander replied honestly.

The glare she shot him made him rethink the whole 'honesty is the best policy' thing, and had Xander considering the benefits of bolting for the hall.

"As I was saying," Wednesday said, turning away, "Parselmouth is hardly dark, it's merely considered to be so in England because your Dark Lords have a penchant for the dramatic."

"How would it help anyway?" Harry asked, still confused.

Wednesday sighed again, closing her eyes. "Why do I bother?"

"I'm not sure I understand either," Hermione admitted, "Dragons aren't snakes, wouldn't they have their own language?"

Wednesday looked over at Xander, "Are you as ignorant?"

Xander shrugged, "You obviously know a lot more than me, but aren't dragons referred to as 'great serpents' in like, every mythology I've ever heard of?"

Wednesday nodded, gracing him with a slight smile. "Precisely. Physically, you are correct, Hermione. They have no relation to snakes at all, and their 'language', such as it is, is completely different as well."

"Well then how does that help?"

"Magically," Wednesday ignored Harry, "however, is another matter entirely. Magically they're almost identical to serpents, merely… more so."

"Harry still couldn't talk to them, though, I mean… if the languages are different vocally?" Hermione looked terribly confused.

"True," Wednesday conceded, "However we do have several possibilities that remain open, such as Legilimens."

"Whoa." Xander whistled, "That's some serious magic, Wens."

She shot him a dark look, but Xander ignored it.

"No, seriously," He said, leaning forward. "I'm an occlumens, but Legilimens is tough."

"If he can learn a Patronus, I'm certain he can manage," She replied dryly.

"Maybe." Xander shrugged.

"You said options," Hermione said, looking up from the notes she was taking. "What are the others?"

"There are spells to alter the timber of Parseltongue to match a Dragons tonality," Wednesday said, "Though obviously they won't be located here."

"That doesn't do me a lot of good," Harry sighed.

"Where are they located, Wens?" Xander asked with a smile.

She didn't bother glaring at him this time, merely shrugging. "I'm fairly certain that the Addams library has references."

Harry looked at her, surprised. "You'd do that for me?"

"No." She said simply, causing Harry to droop while looking angry at the same time. "I would, however, request those references for Hermione and Alexander… since they seem to have taken an interest in your otherwise pathetic self."

Ouch. Even Xander winced at that one. Harry looked like he'd been gut-shot, eyes wide as he stared at Wednesday.

"Wednesday!" Hermione hissed, "That's rude."

"Truth often is." She deadpanned, "make no mistake, I have very little interest in helping you Harry Potter. My friends, however, see more in you than I do. Perhaps they're right, and I am wrong. I doubt it, however I would be… pleased if you proved me wrong."

"W… why?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "Why what?"

"Why would you be pleased if you were wrong?"

She sighed again, shaking her head as she looked between Hermione and Xander. "Honestly, what DO you see in him?"

Harry was starting to get angry now, more than hurt, but Wednesday simple stood up and started gathering her books as she stared evenly at him.

"It is simple, Mr. Potter," She said, "if I am proven wrong, then it shows that I showed very good judgment in choosing my friends, because they obviously fill in areas that I will have proven deficient in. If you prove to be worth their time, you prove their worth as well as your own."

Harry blinked.

Wednesday finished gathering up her things and headed out of the library, commenting softly over her shoulder. "I'll send for the references. In the meantime, I suggest you work on your summoning and the Legilimens spell. A quiver with only one arrow is a fragile tool to rely on."

After she was gone, Harry shivered.

"You know, she freaks me out and really ticks me off all at the same time," He said.

Xander shrugged, smirking, "She freaks me out and makes me real happy to be me all at the same time."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she won't kill me, so being me is a good thing to be." Xander grinned. "So, what do you want to do, mate?"

Harry sighed, "What she said, I guess. She has a point, better to have options."

Xander nodded, "Alright. We've got some work ahead of us. You in Herms?"

Hermione nodded determinedly.

* * *

Xander stretched his neck out, working the kink from it as he looked over the revised notes Hermione and Wednesday had given him on the spell he was trying to tinker into existence. They'd done miracles, to be honest, by reducing the equation he'd scribbled to something even he could understand.

He smiled wryly at the irony of that statement, but it was nonetheless true. He'd written the previous equation in pieces, understanding the individual components well enough, but the whole had been a tangled mess beyond his knowledge. The new equation was only six inches of parchment long, about half a page single spaced, and while still daunting Xander could recognize the elements of the spell he'd designed within.

The equation was only half the problem of spell creation, however. The other half was the sticky part. Arithmancy was a fairly well understood science, in so much as any magic could be considered a science Xander supposed. It was possible to arithmantically describe all spells, but the equation didn't actually cast the spell.

There also wasn't much connection between the two, more's the pity.

He had the equation to describe the spell now, what would follow, Xander suspected, would be the difficult part.

Unlike the arithmantic component, there was no book on how to continue on from the point he had reached. Several books referenced it, but like everything else in the Magical world, the exact process was so secret that Xander doubted anyone knew the method. He suspected that most spells were created by dumb luck masquerading as knowledge, just by looking at the list of spells and their creators.

In the non-magical world, inventors tended to specialize. Not always intentionally, but there was always something they were better at than the rest. In the magical world, apparently that didn't hold true. Dark Lords were credited with inventing healing spells, tickling charms and all manner of nonsensical spellwork. Otherwise inconsequential wizards and witches had developed some of the darkest curses in history.

Only the unforgivables themselves were credited to people Xander would have guessed at. The Cruciatus had been created by an Outlaw Black, a man who'd murdered his way across England centuries earlier. Not so much a Dark Lord as a serial killer, from what the texts said. The killing curse was credited to a genuine dark lord from two centuries earlier, well mostly credited. There was some controversy over all of the so called unforgivables, with some people claiming that each were 'misunderstood'.

It was a common cry in darker times, Xander had found in his reading. People on one side of another excusing the unforgivables under common cries. The killing curse was for slaughtering animals humanely. Bullshit. The Cruciatus was a medical spell, intended to help certain nerve ailments. Bullshit. The Imperio was merely to help prevent suicides. BULLSHIT.

Xander couldn't believe the crap people put down on paper.

Who designs a spell capable of piercing every magical shield known to exist merely to slaughter animals? No one. Absolutely not one single soul on the planet would put that much work into a spell intended for use in a slaughter house where the victim could not defend themselves. To say otherwise was to insult the spell's victims, to call them cattle. It disgusted him to read, even when the text was over a century old.

The spell's incantation itself spoke the truth of the spell after all. Avada Kedavra. From the ancient Sumerian, Abra Cadabra, meaning 'let this thing be destroyed'. The pseudo Latin incantation translated, roughly, to 'Let this Soul be Destroyed'. Its creator had a dark sense of humor.

The other two were similar, Cruciatus was linked strongly with the word excruciating. Hardly a medical term. Imperio, was linked to Imperial obviously, in the old term. Xander supposed it might be more accurately termed the 'slave curse', Imperial being a reference to dominance.

Xander didn't know if the spells were evil by nature or entirely neutral, but they had not been developed innocently. Anyone who claimed otherwise was an imbecile, or a liar with an agenda.

What interested Xander most about the unforgivables, however, wasn't their nature. It was that they were among the very few spells he had researched that appeared to have been created *intentionally*.

That was a secret for which Xander would think long and hard about killing to obtain.

Unfortunately, or perhaps not, none of the creators of those three most infamous spells survived their creation by more than six years. Which left him rather back where he had started, much to his disgust.

* * *

While Xander was wrestling with the intangibles of spell creation, Harry was working harder than he had since leaving the Dursleys that summer. He was no stranger to sweat, but it was a new and different experience to be working for himself instead of for someone else.

His dueling practice had gone by the side, left for the moment in favor of something that might keep him alive against a dragon.

The summoning idea was a good one, Harry had determined for himself. He could summon things from a long distance off with little trouble, thanks to Xander showing him the spell's counterpart, the banishing charm. Both worked much the same, thankfully, and Harry had learned both quite well.

He and Hermione had hashed out a plan, involving the summoning of his broom. Harry was going to take that a little bit further by stashing his Firebolt in by the pitch the night before the first task, since he'd worked out that it took a while to call something from a long distance. He would also place his invisibility cloak with it, in case he needed a bit of help in the stealth department.

Anything else he could think of before the task would also be moved closer in advance. What could they do, after all? Kick him out of the tournament for cheating?

Harry chuckled darkly as he settled in to read some more on Legilimency.

The projective counterpart of the defensive discipline, Occlumency, Legilimency was known as a tricky and dangerous spell. It was borderline dark, Harry determined from his reading, though intent seemed to matter as much as the spell itself. Using it on a person without permission or a legal writ was considered Dark, and punishable under Wizarding Law pretty much across the planet.

Punishments varied from fines to prison time, depending on the situation, but were mostly of no relation to his current task. Dragons weren't registered as Sentients, or even Magical beings, by any member ministry of the ICW. They were, in effect, livestock.

Harry wasn't sure he agreed with that, or disagreed. He didn't know enough about them to say, quite honestly, but morally he wasn't bothered either way. He didn't intend to use the spell to harm a dragon, just hopefully talk it out of killing him if Wednesday was right about Parseltongue letting him communicate.

Idly he wondered, if it was true and he could talk to dragons… mind to mind, even if not voice to voice… then wouldn't that make them sentient? But, of course, were snakes sentient? He could talk to those.

That was a weird thought. Were snakes sentient? They seemed to be when he spoke with them, but otherwise they were by all accounts… well, animals. They didn't plan, they didn't seem to exhibit any sense of self or ability to learn… unless he spoke to them.

Harry rubbed his temple.

He was getting a wicked headache.

He pushed it away, focusing on the book. He had SO much work to do.

* * *

Hermione rubbed her eyes, yawning tiredly as she worked on her potions essay. She'd spent most of the afternoon and evening working on things for Harry, and had almost forgotten her homework in the process.

She couldn't keep her mind off of Harry's situation, though, and it was driving her nuts.

How he could possibly keep getting himself in these situations, she had no idea. Oh, she knew it wasn't any action on his part, it just seemed like Karma or Fate or something really had it in for Harry. He just tried to be like every other student in the school, but it was like he was doomed to be hauled into on insane series of events after another.

Hermione absolutely refused to refer to them as 'adventures'. They were NOT adventures. Adventures were fun, sometimes scary, and had a point to them besides survival.

For a girl who grew up on Enid Blyton, Hermione was sorely disappointed with the quality of adventures that appeared to be her lot in life since meeting Harry.

Why did Harry have to draw in the xenophobic racist stereotypes, complete with insane madman at the head of his own Stormtrooper division? Sometimes it felt like she was living in someone's warped vision of World War Two, set against a fantasy world.

Honestly, she didn't know what she would do without Wednesday and Xander to keep her sane.

Hermione winced.

Wednesday and Xander. Keeping someone, keeping HER, sane.

Oh sweet Merlin, she'd already lost her marbles.

* * *

Wednesday smiled almost invisibly as she sat in the large sofa chair that sat in the corner of the Ravenclaw common room. Her book, a half finished treatise on dark rites of the third century was propped open in her lap but she wasn't paying a great deal of attention to it.

Instead she was watching the Ravenclaw clique led by Cho Chang as they huddled in the far corner from her, occasionally staring at her with a mixture of fear and suspicion.

It amused her.

She let the fear build for a while before deciding to act, then simply closed her book with a loud snapping sound.

"Ladies." She said, looking up at them. She was, of course, using the term loosely, but her mother had always said that you were always polite. Especially to those you had no respect for. People you respected, you told the truth to. You showed your true face occasionally. Politeness existed to keep your enemies from seeing any weak spots they could exploit.

"Ladies," She said again, enjoying the shiver the single word sent through them, "May I help you?"

Cho visibly fortified herself, glaring at Wednesday. It was almost… cute, Wednesday thought briefly. Like a pet trying to stare down its master.

"You booby trapped the rooms!" Cho accused.

"I did no such thing," Wednesday countered calmly. "If I had, none of you would have survived to glare at me."

"B… but…"

Wednesday rose to her feet, "You have been warned, time and time again. I've been nice, I've been subtle. I've even been merciful, something I personally find distasteful. Now I am being an Addams."

"W… what are you talking about?"

"If you steal something, if you keep something you find that isn't yours, if you even happen to *accidentally* acquire something that belongs rightfully to another student… We'll play a game." Wednesday smiled, this time visibly as she walked toward the others. "In fact, we've been playing for some time, though you were too silly and dim to notice. Now, however, I have no time for indulgences. Nor will I abide a thief where I sleep."

"W… we're not thieves."

"Oh, really?" Wednesday lifted an eyebrow. "I suppose that hairpin is yours?"

Chang's hand went to her hair, closing on the pin in question. "I… I'm borrowing it."

"Ah…" Wednesday breathed, then smiled again. "Let's play a game. It's called 'Sharia Rules'."

"I… I've never heard of that before…" Cho stammered out.

A gasp from another corner of the room attracted their attention to where Padma Patil was looking sickly pale despite her dusky.

"P… Padma?" Cho blinked, "You've heard of it?"

Padma nodded fearfully. She wasn't part of the group that had attracted the Addams' ire, but she was deeply… wary of the girl anyway. "I… it's sacred Islamic law. Steal something… l… lo…."

"Lose your hand." Wednesday smirked, a scimitar blade appearing from behind her back as she advanced on Cho.

Cho shrieked, not even thinking of her wand, and bolted from the room. The other girls fearfully fell apart as Wednesday marched slowly after her.

"I'll return it! I'll give it back! Loony! I have your hairpin!" Cho screamed as she ran.


	92. Chapter 92

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander was surprised when Wednesday came to him, just a few days before the First Task and presented him with a book.

"What's this?" he asked, looking at the cracked leather cover.

"An Addams family tome on advanced Legilimency." She replied evenly, "You'll find the spells I spoke of for Harry within."

Xander swallowed, eyeing the book a little closer. It was thick, probably four inches of stacked parchment bound into the leather. Given the age involved, it was almost certainly hand written, and that mean valuable as all hell.

"You could have just copied the spells Harry needed," Xander said softly.

"I could." She nodded, "However I believe that you may enjoy the book yourself. It has been several generations since an Addams practiced either Occlumency or Legilimency, and that book has not been opened in nearly as long."

Xander nodded slowly, but was puzzled. "But… why?"

"Why what?"

"Why haven't any Addams used these skills? They're powerful…" Xander said, half smiling, "even if I'm not, I can recognize that."

Wednesday sat down carefully in front of him, settling her hands in her lap as she considered her answer. "It's complex. For one thing, few beings on this planet are fool enough to tread on the mental ground of an Addams…"

Xander snickered, "I believe that."

She glowered at him, but without real bite. "However, beyond that, there is an element of laziness involved. Without the need for the more obvious benefits, few have been interested in the years of work needed to achieve its full benefit. Particularly since we Addams have integrated many of the skills within into our natural bloodline."

Xander frowned now, puzzled, "What… but how?"

She smiled slightly, "Check the author's name, cover page."

Xander opened the book and swallowed, suddenly having an idea of what she was talking about.

Arts quod Castrensis of Sententia Venificus, Jetta Lavelle Addams, Anno Dominae 968

His Latin had improved enough that he didn't even need to sound out the words anymore, but Xander's lips trembled as he read those lines.

The Arts and Disciplines of Thought Magic, by Jetta Lavelle Addams, in the Year of Our Lord 968.

"Lavelle?" Xander blinked, looking up eyes shocked.

"Of your clan," Wednesday confirmed, "I checked into it the first year we met, which is how I knew about this book. The Lavelles were masters of Thought Magic, which became known as Legilimency and Occlumency in later years. Black Addams, as she was known, was one of the foremost masters of your clan until she married into my clan. This was her life's work, honestly I'm not certain it was ever completed… though, true master works rarely are."

Xander's hands actually trembled as he held the book, eyes scanning the first few pages intently before rising to look at Wednesday again.

"There are those who would kill for that book, Alexander." She said seriously, "Beginning with many of the Lavelle Clan, and continuing on to practically every practitioner of mind magic alive today, barring a precious few who cling to their 'morals'. I would advise that you NOT share the book with anyone, but study it yourself and coach Harry on what he needs and only what he needs."

Xander nodded, still basically in shock. He was holding a book that all the money he had made with his potions accident couldn't buy, not if he had a hundred times as much… and it had been handed to him freely.

He almost missed Wednesday as she left.

"Wens." He croaked out, throat muscles not entirely within his control.

She paused, half looking back.

"Thank you."

She nodded simply, then left the library. Xander stared for a while longer, then snapped out of it and shut the book abruptly, as he looked around. He tucked it under his arm and walked out as casually as he could, heading for the Room of Requirements.

* * *

Translating the book was a bit of a chore, especially since Jetta 'Black' Addams may have been a genius but the woman apparently couldn't organize her thoughts to save her soul. The sections Wednesday thought Harry might be able to use were all over the place, and weren't really anything to do with Parseltongue.

It had taken him a couple hours to realize that the magic in question was actually based on Jetta's experience with the Addam's bloodline, and the bizarre form of polyglot the family enjoyed. An Addams was born with the ability to understand any language, and make themselves understood in any language, something that just blew Xander's mind every time he tried to work out how it might work.

Originally He'd supposed it was some form of Legilimency, but apparently it wasn't according to the notes he was reading. One of the sacrifices the talent extracted was the ability to actually *learn* languages. An Addams learned only one language in their life, and spoke it unto the death. Which, from what Xander could make out, was perhaps a fair trade but it did have consequences. Nuance was often lost to an Addams, and sarcasm was right out the window. Often even in their own birth language, they relied so strongly on their bloodline that entire volumes of communication was lost to them.

It explained some things, Xander supposed.

What Jetta Addams had determined was that the Addams Polyglot, like other forms of magical tongues, encoded itself directly into the magical core of the individual. On a magical level, it was identical to the natural magic of the targeted speaker. It was that element that had attracted Wednesday's attention, though Xander realized that Wednesday must have read the whole book as well, otherwise she could never have made the connections she had.

The Legilimens spell overlaid thought onto a magical template, projecting it at the target. The template, however, was limited to what the caster was capable of 'emoting', so to speak. So, for most people, it was limited to the languages they could speak for obvious reasons.

For an Addams, however, the Legilimens took on the same impression as their natural polyglot. It wasn't actually a terribly useful fact, not for an Addams at least, since it didn't really enhance their own natural abilities significantly. All it meant was that they could mind speak the same way the voice spoke, which wasn't actually as impressive as it sounded.

For certain types of magical speech, however, the implications were somewhat more impressive. And it was here that Xander finally understood how it could help Harry. Snake speech was, magically, identical to all 'serpents', which included Draconic Breeds.

Normally this did nothing, however, because the two animals used *entirely* different physical speech processes. Dragons roared, snakes hissed. They simply couldn't possibly understand one another. Beneath the crude physicality, however, the… Xander scowled, looking for a word to describe it and finally settled on 'syntax', the syntax was identical.

So Harry could project his thoughts in a form a dragon could understand.

Right.

Xander closed the book, checked his notes, and grabbed his Map. It was time to bring Harry into the loop.

* * *

"Wait. I'm not sure I get it. I can think at a Dragon, and it'll think back?" Harry asked, skeptically.

Xander didn't really blame him, but he grinned anyway as he nodded. "Oh yeah. Be careful, though, there are some dangers."

Hermione, who had insisted on joining them when Xander shanghaied Harry in the hall, looked worried. "Dangers?"

"Well, not physical ones… or even serious mental ones I guess," Xander said, frowning, "it's more like… you have to understand, even Dragons aren't much smarter than, say, dolphins or so from what I can gather. Snakes are dumber than that by far…"

"But, I've talked to a snake… it told me it wanted to go home to the jungle…" Harry objected, "It called me amigo!"

"Amigo?" Hermione blinked. "Really?"

Harry nodded.

Xander looked a little perplexed, "that is a little odd. Uh, did you read anything with that word in it around that time?"

Harry frowned, "I don't remember… maybe, I was in school after all."

"Well, the thing is, from what I can tell your own mind is prone to fill in the details big time." Xander said, "So what the snake actually said was probably more like, 'home good, friend'. And you filled in the grammar and all in your head. Well, really the snake projected emotions and desires that you translated into words in your head. You'll do the same thing if you try and mindspeak a dragon, and that can get you in trouble."

"How so?" Harry frowned, wrapping his head around the fact that his mind apparently thought that snakes should talk in cheerful foreign accents and call him 'Amigo'.

"Well, the biggest thing is that dragons are predators. I mean, real deal apex predators…" Xander said, "Like Great White Sharks, get it?"

Harry shook his head.

"Harry, if you ask a Great White Shark the definition of 'Good' it would probably answer 'a full stomach'. " Xander said, "and 'Evil' would probably be an empty stomach."

"You're saying that Harry might misunderstand the dragons?" Hermione asked nervously.

"More or less, yeah." Xander nodded, "your Parseltongue ability will translate their thoughts directly and accurately, but you still have to make sense of it… and you're NOT a Dragon, right? You've got an entirely different set of priorities. I hope you do anyway."

Hermione and Harry ignored the dry sarcasm of the last bit, but nodded in understanding.

Hermione for one was hopping, "But that makes so much sense! Honestly, Harry, I never really understood how magical languages worked, but this explains everything!"

"I'm glad it does for you…" Harry looked confused.

"Oh, don't you see? It communicates concepts, thoughts, impressions…" Hermione said, excited, "but we all evaluate the world based on our experiences! A snake might describe a hugely detailed picture, with most of the details being heat and smell, but you wouldn't understand all that! You don't have the conceptual framework for it! So of COURSE your mind would convert it all to something you understand…"

Hermione frowned suddenly, sitting down. "Merlin, Harry… the details you must lose."

"Part of the cost," Xander shrugged, "though, if Harry were to become a snake Animagus he could probably get a LOT better at Parseltongue."

Hermione nodded seriously, "true. Do you suppose he could?"

"His dad was a stag Animagus, so yeah he's got a shot." Xander shrugged.

"Do you get to pick your form?" Harry asked, very interested in the new direction the conversation had taken.

"No." Hermione answered.

"Maybe." Xander said at the same time.

Hermione looked at him, incredulously. "It says right in the transfiguration text that a person's animal form is inherent and unchangeable."

"Yeah, but it depends on the method of transformation," Xander countered. "The Egyptians used rituals for both cat and snake transformations, and from some of the texts I've read the Hindu magical tradition has several specific rituals to become different forms."

"Where did you read about those?" Hermione frowned, confused.

"The history of the second world war, magical fronts." Xander said. "Grindlewald was a master of lost Egyptian rituals, and a snake Animagus. It's one of the reasons they still haven't found all his stolen properties and loot, the bastard hid them so well that Gringotts has been sending almost all their curse breakers to Egypt for training in the hopes of finding just a portion of what he stole and hid."

"Really?" Hermione frowned, "That seems wasteful…"

"Hermione," Xander shook his head, "The dude was so good at it that the Goblins STILL haven't been able to locate Gringotts Berlin."

* * *

The day of the first task brought Xander to the stands with the rest of the school, Wednesday at his side as they waited for the champions to take the field. He could feel Wednesday's irritation at his side as the first of the dragons was brought forward.

"What's wrong?" he asked, glancing at her in surprise.

While it was true that Wednesday was of a decidedly 'dark' persona, she was rarely irritated or angry. Normally her emotional sense was almost purely neutral, chilling in its indifference. The few emotional queues Xander recognized from her were mostly mischievous humor and the like, or mock anger and joy intended to intimidate.

"Those are the Dragon's clutch." She whispered, eyes not leaving the field.

Xander whistled slowly, eyeing the eggs on the ground with new eyes. "Damn. That's taking some chances, isn't it?"

Wednesday didn't bother to dignify the comment, her eyes on the sleeping beast as it was deposited in the field by the handlers. She noted the golden egg being placed in the 'nest', and raised her eyebrows.

"I suppose we now know the task."

Xander nodded, "Grab the egg. You think Harry can summon it?"

Wednesday watched them cast spells over the golden object and shook her head, "No. That Accio isn't a common spell for his year to know, but fifth years learn it. It would hardly be a challenge if they left that hole open."

"Too bad."

Bagman stepped up as the field was readied and told them what they had already figured out, that the challenge was the retrieve an egg from the mother dragon, and shortly after he announced the first competitor.

Diggory came out, looking a little ashen to be sure, but at least he wasn't shaking as he faced off against the Swedish Short Snout. They were treated to a rather impressive display of transfiguration as he sent some rocks, changed to resemble dogs, in to baffle the beast.

Xander winced as the dragon made short work of the dogs, chomping them down in one bite each. Fenrir whined under his seat, the pup ducking its head and covering its eyes with its paws.

"It's ok, boy. They weren't real dogs." Xander said softly, shaking his head. "Still, pretty gruesome stuff."

Wednesday was unmoved as she watched, the magical trickery permitted Diggory to bolt across to the nest and retrieve the egg. He almost made it back before the dragon finished off his dogs, but almost wasn't good enough. The crowd gasped in shock as the plume of flame caught him along one side, sending Cedric sprawling to the ground and barely over the line that marked the finish.

Wizards rushed in to put the flames out, even as a team of Dragon Handlers swarmed the short snout. Xander winced as Wednesday's hand gripped his arm and the girl squeezed as the dragon went down to the stunners and binding hexes.

"Ow! Geeze, Wens…"

She didn't say anything, but did relax her grip.

Neither of them paid much attention to the scores as they watched the next nesting dragon being brought forward. When the field was ready, the next champion was announced and Fleur Delacour came to the field.

Xander threw up his Occlumency shields when her name was announced, but like at the introduction feast her allure was a soft caress against his shields and he relaxed them enough so he could pay attention.

There wasn't much to see, though. Fleur went to action casting a complicated, possibly ritualized, sleeping enchantment that had the dragon snoring softly where it lay in no time. She then simply waltzed over to the nest and plucked up the egg.

There was a bit of excitement as she was coming back, the dragon snorted in its sleep and a puff of flame caught her robes on fire. The Veela calmly doused them with a spray of water from her wand, however, and headed back across the line.

"Nice spell work, was that a ritual enchantment?" Xander asked softly, glancing over to Wednesday.

The Addams scion nodded, "Yes. Quite powerful, mostly forgotten now. As with almost all rituals, it's considered borderline dark in many countries, however it's obscure enough that I doubt those fools recognized what they saw."

Xander glanced to where the points were being awarded, and his eyes fell on Dumbledore. "Oh, I think at least one did."

Wednesday nodded her concession. "Agreed, however I doubt he'll make a fuss."

"Granted."

The clean-up was quick and practiced, and the next dragon came forth so that within just a few minutes the next champion was announced and Viktor Krum strode out.

"Krum! Krum! Krum!"

The droning call from the Durmstrang contingent drowned out the sonorous boosted voice of Ludo Bagman for a time, but things were quickly underway.

Krum was practically a studied antithesis of Delacour. Where she was soft and subtle, he simple strode in with wand blazing. A Conjunctivitis curse blinded the dragon in the early moments of the challenge, and he rushed in to the nest to fetch the golden egg.

Unfortunately, as he did, the sound of his movements announced his intent to the dragon and the beast reared up and attacked blindly. Flames washed out parts of the field, stopping at the ward wall before they could roast the spectators, and the Chinese Fireball reared again and stumbled around blindly in its attempt to get at its target.

Xander bit his lip as Wednesday's nails dug into his arm, hissing in pain as he watched the dragon smash through its own nest and pulverize easily half its eggs. He was pulled to his feet as Wednesday snapped up, but pulled her back by the shoulder.

"Easy!" He hissed, "There's nothing to do. Look, the handlers are already moving to save the rest of the nest…"

It was then that Xander saw something he'd never imagined to see, not in all the time he'd known his friend. Tears were welling in Wednesday Addams eyes as she stared down at the carnage below them. He started to say something, but was shocked again when she leaned into him and clutched at his robes.

He hesitantly put an arm around her, hugging her closely, and turned his own eyes back down to the fracas below.

The handlers were cleaning up the mess, and Xander could almost swear that some of them were in nearly as bad a state as Wednesday was. They moved fast, scouring the nest for anything they could save, and quickly transported the undamaged eggs out with immense care.

"The poor thing didn't deserve that."

Wednesday's voice was soft, more childlike that he'd ever heard from her, and so all Xander could do was squeeze a bit more and agree with her.

"I know."

"If Potter harms his dragon, I'll make him wish the dragon finished him off." She promised darkly.

Xander chuckled.

Now THAT was the Wednesday he knew.

Getting Krum's mess cleaned up took a bit longer than the others, but the delay was minimal and soon Bagman announced the final task. Xander could feel the energy change in the audience, it was clear that many of them had come to see Harry and that everything else was just a sideshow.

When they brought out Harry's Dragon, Xander started to wonder if someone else thought much the same. The Horntail was the largest, and apparently meanest, dragon yet. Two teams of Handlers were controlling it, while another moved its nest.

"Oh lord," Xander hissed, "Someone is so trying to do Harry in."

Wednesday, now recovered a bit, nodded in agreement. "No doubt. What do you think he'll do?"

Xander shrugged, "Don't know. He has options, his plan A was to use his broom and invisibility cloak. Not sure if he'll switch up plans now that he knows the task. I doubt he will."

"Why?"

"Look at that thing," Xander said, "It ain't in a talking mood."

Wednesday eyed the horntail carefully for a moment, then nodded. "You are correct. I wonder…"

"Well, we're about to find out. Here he comes."

Harry came out tentatively, eyeing the crowd first and the dragon shortly after. Xander had to smirk, Harry looked far more afraid of the crowd.

Bagman announced the task, and Harry drew his wand as he readied himself. When the time was started, he immediately summoned his Firebolt and rolled clear as the Horntail send a gout of flame his way.

Bagman was chattering incessantly, as was his wont, but no one was listening as all eyes were glued to Harry Potter. His wand flicked out again, and Xander knew that his invisibility cloak was on the way now as well, and then a shield charm flash into place as Harry was swallowed by dragon fire.

The crowd gasped, but cheered a moment later when the flames went down and Harry was alive and well within his shield. Harry bolted as the dragon started to breathe again, jumping into the air as a gout of flame roared at him again. This time, before it reached him, a broomstick rocketed into the field and Harry grabbed it with his free hand, mounting the broom in midair. The racing broom blasted clear of the flames, and Harry took to the air above the dragon.

"Damn, he can fly." Xander grinned widely.

Wednesday nodded in agreement beside him, eyes on the nest and the clutch of eggs more than the growing drama between human and dragon.

* * *

The moment he felt the power of the broom yank him into the air, Harry finally relaxed. He felt the flames licking at his wake, the heat washing over him, but none of that mattered. He was in his element, planning literally on the fly as it were.

Harry grinned, jamming his wand into his belt as he looped the broom around the next plume of flames, and extended his hand just as the silken folds of his cloak flew up to meet him.

He rolled left, into the cloud, and let it cover him naturally as the wind pushed it over him. The crowd below gasped in shock as he vanished from sight, but he didn't really care about them. With the cloak in place he didn't have to worry as much about people seeing what he was doing, and so he drew his wand again and swept in an easy orbit around the dragon's head as he flicked it calmly.

"Legilimens." He hissed softly, eyes looking deep into the orbs of the Dragon's own.

The Dragon reared in response, roaring into the sky as it felt his mental touch and rebelled against it.

'Easy Great Mother.' He hissed mentally, 'I mean no harm.'

The dragon settled down quickly, looking straight at him now. ' Speaker. Why do you torment me? '

'I'm sorry, Great Mother. That is not my intention.' Harry apologized. 'I am forced into a competition with others of my people. My task is to retrieve one of your eggs…'

'NEVER!'

'Easy! Easy, Great mother.' Harry hissed urgently in his mind. 'The egg I seek is false, a plant not one of your own. See the gold colored one behind you.'

The Dragon looked at the clutch and, for the first time noticed that there was indeed a foreign egg in the nest. She hissed in annoyance, plumes of smoke coming from her nostrils.

'And if I give this to you?'

'Then the task is complete, I move on, and you are sent home.' Harry responded.

The dragon considered for a long moment, then seemed to nod with a sharp jerk of her head. 'You may have it.'

Harry hissed his thanks and dove down to the clutch, his hand reaching out from under his cloak as he passed over the egg, and then he was off with it tucked in under his arm.

When he appeared from thin air on the point he started from, the crowd broke out in stunned cheers. Harry, however, ignored them as he looked back at the great dragon that was eyeing him steadily.

Harry brought his wand up in front of his face in salute, and nodded as the Dragon lifted its head skyward and let out a roar that rattled the grandstands and a plume of flame that went up over a hundred feet into the air.

Harry grinned, spinning on his heel and tossing his broom over one shoulder as he held his cloak and the egg under the other arm.

One task down.


	93. Chapter 93

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Once the points were tallied, Harry was found to be in the lead with near perfect scores across the board save for the headmaster of Durmstrang. That left the Gryff's puffed up, and other than a few hard core types like Malfoy, the Potter Stinks pins were basically non-existent by the time Supper in the great hall came around.

The Ravenclaw contingent in particular had ditched them like they were scalded, looking embarrassed whenever the pins were brought up. Some puff's still wore theirs, doggedly loyal to their own despite Cedric's public stand against the offensive pins. Ironically, of the three non-Potter houses, Slytherin had the least embarrassment overall now that the pins had been tossed out, as few in the house had bothered with them in the first place.

Xander was mostly oblivious to that, however, as he was focused on the theory notes he'd made from Black Addams grimoire masterpiece. Her ideas concerning thought magic were unlike anything he'd read about Occlumency and Legilimency to date, and he was fascinated by some of the implications.

The Dominance, Jetta had written, was the key to projective thought magic. This was a state of mind that represented the most primal parts of the human mind, the part that was barely cloaked by the veneer of civility. The part that would gleefully tear the throat of an enemy out with its teeth.

Xander found Black's choice of examples to be quite Addams like, and cringe worthy to say the least. Her ideas, though, were almost revolutionary over a thousand years AFTER she had written them.

Modern Occlumency and Legilimency were strict disciplines, tied to rote exercises that aligned the mind into rigid responses and, internally, predictable reactions. That wasn't to say that it was completely pre-designed or anything of the sort. Imagination and unpredictability were fundamental parts of the Occlumens play book, but what Jetta proposed was something far different. Something that reminded Xander of, well to be frank, the Dark Side of the Force.

It was something to think on, but for the moment he wasn't going to personally delve too deeply into it, for safety's sake as much as anything else.

Around him the school was moving on past the first task, and the headmaster had just announced the upcoming Yule Ball, to the shock and wonder of basically no one that mattered as far as Xander was concerned. It did bring up one thing he'd been worried about since he heard of the plans.

He had to get a date.

On the surface that wasn't such a tough thing, he supposed, but honestly there were only three girls in his life he'd consider asking at the moment. One was in Sunnydale, so she was out. Between the other two Xander had to admit to a certain preference, and perhaps more importantly he suspected that Harry may be interested in the other, so that left him with one.

Now, granted, she was his first choice which was good. However, she was Wednesday Addams, which could be very, VERY bad.

That said, Xander wasn't entirely stupid. He knew that if Wednesday every got even a hint that he wanted to ask her and DIDN'T, he'd pay for it. It might even destroy their friendship, since one thing that Wednesday didn't tolerate was voluntary weakness of any sort. Her irritation with Harry being a prime example, though Xander was a little worried that she was taking that a bit too far.

Harry was a good enough sort, and he knew how to work when the chips were falling. He was just a little lazy otherwise, Xander knew that he himself was pretty much the same except for one thing. Magic was just SO DAMN COOL. That was the one thing that he didn't get about Harry, honestly. How could he come in from the non-magical world and NOT being totally stoked about magic?

Xander just shrugged off the question, though he suspected that it had something to do with Harry's Aunt and Uncle. It wasn't the time to answer, not now, he had more important things to figure out.

Like how exactly does one ask an Addams out to a ball without getting their entrails used as Christmas Tree decorations?

He suspected that the first part of the answer was "Don't ask an Addams out to a ball unless you're confident they're going to say yes."

It was the second part he was thinking about.

That is, how do you make it memorable?

* * *

Padma Patil noted idly that the screaming in the Ravenclaw dorms would have been unusual in almost any other year, and were unusual even this year for one reason only.

That reason was currently marching down the stairs in deliberate fashion, looking annoyed at the sound.

"What is going on?" Wednesday Addams scowled, annoyed at all the shrieking.

Which was precisely the reason it was a little odd. Apparently Wednesday didn't have anything to do with this particular event. Padma raised her eyebrows slightly as the Addam's girl looked at her, then nodded off in the direction of Cho and Marietta who were squealing and scrubbing their hands desperately with whatever they could get their hands on.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Marietta squealed in disgust.

Wednesday looked at their hands, but didn't see anything amiss. She glanced back again at Padma, curious.

Padma shrugged, "They cleaned it off a couple minutes ago, but I can't say I blame them."

Wednesday now looked truly puzzled, not a normal state for her.

"Check the entrance."

Wednesday nodded slightly, then walked over to the entrance that protected the dorms, demanding silently at it open. Her eyes widened when she saw the other side and noted the still beating human heart spiked to the door.

A smile played at her lips, she tried to contain it but couldn't. A silence descended on the dorm as Wednesday Addams reached out and pulled the spike from the door, with the heart still perforated and hanging from it as it beat steadily.

Abruptly she spun on her heal.

"Wait!" Padma was now burning with curiosity. "Where are you going?"

"My room." Wednesday said, as if it were blatantly obvious. "I have to look my best."

"Huh!?" Half the room stuttered out as Wednesday strode up the stairs.

The other Claw's looked at each other in confusion.

"What the hell was that about?" Padma finally got out.

Only Luna Lovegood deigned to answer, and she just sighed.

"Wednesday has a date to the Yule ball. It's really rather romantic."

Everyone stared at Luna incredulously, but no one dared say what they were thinking as they all remembered Sharia Rules.

* * *

Xander gulped as Wednesday stalked up to him in the Great Hall, stopping in front of his place at the Slytherin table. She stared at him for a long moment, just enough to send chills up his spine, and sweat beads down it.

Finally she spoke.

"How did you know?"

Xander shrugged, kinda embarrassed all the same. "Your Dad talks about his 'conquests' when your Mom isn't around. It sounded like something you'd appreciate."

Wednesday nodded, leaning over and reaching across to pull him closer. Xander was surprised when she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Yes, I'll go with you."

Xander let out a breath of relief. "Thank God. I figured it was either yes, or you were going to kill me, but with you it's hard to tell."

Her eyes danced, with something that Xander could only imagine as malicious amusement, "There's still time, maybe we can do both."

Xander chuckled nervously, "Uh yeah, sure."

Wednesday nodded, then straightened up. "I was a little disappointed that it was transfigured, of course…"

"Well, I don't think we're at the point yet where I should be carving out people's hearts as a gift to you." Xander replied, his smirk back in evidence.

She sniffed as the Slytherins present all turned to gawk in shock at Xander. "Yes, well… maybe later."

"Did I at least freak out Chang and Edgecombe?"

She raised an eyebrow, "That was intentional?"

"Well," Xander said, "You have been a little annoyed with those two lately, so I thought I'd put some psychological torture into the gift, you know to make up for the transfiguration thing."

Wednesday stared for a long moment at Xander, starting to make him nervous again. Finally she just nodded. "Impressive. I will see you later."

Xander nodded, a slightly confused smile on his face as she withdrew.

* * *

"If it weren't an Addams we were speaking of, I swear I'd have the boy in counseling already," Flitwick said, shaking his head tiredly. "Half the house is still shivering, and the other half is just hoping this calms Addams down for a while."

Severus Snape snorted, rolling his eyes. "While it's a distinctly disturbing thing to do, I'll grant, it was all for show, Fillius. Harris and the Addams girl are just firing another salvo in her little war with your Claws."

Minerva McGonagall shuddered, shaking her head. "I hardly think it matters. Disgusting behavior. I'm going to have to have a word with Ms. Granger about who she associates with. Anyone as twisted in the head to do that, even if it was a prank, is someone we need to be concerned about."

"Harris isn't the type you're thinking," Snape shrugged calmly. "The boy is disgustingly straight forward and moral."

"He nailed a human HEART to the castle walls." Pomona Sprout said in response. "Honestly, Severus, I can't see how even you can condone such things. I'm just happy that none of my Puffs have been associating with the boy."

"None of them are smart enough to warrant his attention." Severus countered snarkily.

"Why you…!"

"The boy only seems to sit with the most intelligent, if obnoxious, females in the school." Severus pointed out calmly. "Or had you missed that fact? In Slytherin the only girl outside his small clique he deigns to speak with is Greengrass. Addams from Ravenclaw, and Granger from Gryffindor. Who in your house could keep up with their *small talk*?"

"Mr. Harris doesn't seem that intelligent himself." Pomona countered, huffing.

"He isn't." Severus shrugged, "They all far exceed his own intelligence, however I've observed that he has one quality that they all lack."

"Indeed?" Albus spoke up for the first time in the meeting since the conversation had shifted over to the subject of Alexander Harris and his recent 'romantic' overtures. "What, pray tell, would that be?"

"The boy can't keep up with any of them in the theory, let alone all of them," Severus admitted, "However his practical scores are generally just behind your boy wonder, Albus. And, given that Harris is actually taking classes that challenge him, his talents in applied magic likely far exceed Potter's."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything." Sprout grumbled, still miffed at Severus' implication that none of her puffs were smart enough to sit in with the group they were speaking of.

"Put simply, whatever insanity they can come up with… Harris can put into action." Severus snorted, "Or have you lot failed to notice his left hand?"

Fillius frowned, "I have, but it doesn't make sense. Why carry a second wand? It's not like he can use it."

"On the contrary, we've all seen that he uses it quite effectively." Albus corrected his Charm's Master. "Remember Lord Vader on Halloween?"

"That was Harris?" The short professor squeaked, "And the second wand worked? I thought it was distraction…"

"No, Fillius, it was quite real." Albus Dumbledore replied, "I've puzzled over it occasionally since, however I'm quite certain that he cast through both wands."

"But… I didn't think that was possible," Minerva said slowly.

"Nor I," Albus admitted. "The boy, however, is an accredited Wand Crafter at the ICW level. Legally we can't confiscate his wands, nor are we permitted to pursue any 'professional secrets' he may utilize in their making."

"You didn't punish him for that disruption?" Pomona asked.

"What good would it do?" Albus smiled genially, "we can't actually prove it, and even if we could, it was a harmless prank done in jest."

The other professors nodded, accepting that, but Albus caught the dark look from Severus. The two of them knew the more poignant reason not to punish the boy for that prank. It would credit him with having pulled off several feats of magic that students were STILL attempting to decipher. Outing the boy over that would grant him more influence, something Albus was not currently interested in doing.

His recent overtures to the Addams girl worried Albus, though not so much as one might think. He was well aware of Addams proclivities, and knew that what might be a sign of a demented mind in a normal person was merely a little spot of fun for an Addams. Had it been the Addams girl who spiked the heart to the boy's common room door, in fact, Albus would have laughed it entirely off and not given it another thought.

The boy, however, wasn't an Addams and so would bear watching. The fact that it was transfigured, as opposed to a cow heart or something of that nature was likely a sign that the boy was merely playing into the Addams' own game, however. If the boy and the Addams girl continued to get closer, it would bring many of Albus' concerns to rest. If they broke, and Harris continued his seemingly dark ways, well that was another matter.

Still, Addams or no, Albus had to admit to being made queasy by the whole scene.

'Whatever happened to candy?' He wondered belatedly, popping a lemon drop into his mouth.

* * *

"A human heart, honestly?" Hermione asked as she sat across the table from Xander, her books untouched.

Xander shrugged, glancing up from his own. "Just be happy I transfigured it. I think Wens would have gone for the real deal."

"She would not!" Hermione hissed.

Xander lifted an eyebrow, "Really? You don't think Wens would have… taken care of, say, Quirrell if he'd gotten in her way the way he did for you guys?"

Hermione flushed a little, looking away. "Doesn't mean she would have cut his heart out."

"Waste not, want not."

Hermione and Xander both jumped as Wednesday spoke up, appearing from behind them to claim her normal seat.

"Don't DO that!" Hermione hissed, trying to keep her voice low in the library. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Well, I would hate to damage a perfectly functional gift." Wednesday deadpanned.

Hermione flinched, pulling away from her friend, eyes skittish.

"Stop scaring her, Wens." Xander rolled his eyes. "And Herms, cut it out. You know us better than that."

"I thought I did."

Wednesday eyed Hermione for a long moment, then looked over at Xander. "She's boring me."

"She's a suburb brat, Wens." Xander said with half a smile. "Cut her some slack."

"So are you."

"I'm also too dumb to be afraid." Xander said with a grin.

Wednesday sent him a dark look, and he leaned away while holding his hands up. "Hey, just trying to lighten the mood. Herms doesn't spend holidays with your family Wens. Seriously, cut her some slack."

Wednesday settled a bit, but still shot Xander a dark look that boded badly for him. Xander had a sneaking thought that maybe he shouldn't be siding against Wednesday with another girl just after he asked her out to a dance.

He sighed.

'Probably should have thought of that BEFORE I opened my yap.'

Hindsight wouldn't save him from Wednesday, Xander suspected.

"Maybe we should change the subject," Hermione said, feeling uneasy herself. "I don't get it, I know that… I don't really WANT to get it, but it's between you guys."

Xander nodded, "Thank you."

Wednesday considered for a moment, then tipped her head. "Agreed."

Hermione looked nervously between them, "So… uh, you two at the ball, huh?"

"Apparently."

"Wow."

Wednesday arced an eyebrow, "I'll let you know if it's 'wow' after the ball."

"Oy, I'm sitting right here." Xander complained.

No one listened.

"Harry ask you yet?" Xander asked, rolling his eyes.

Hermione looked shocked, "Harry? Why would he ask me?"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"He's been crushing on Cho Chang, for one."

"That figures." Wednesday rolled her eyes.

"You're kidding." Xander looked confused. "Why her?"

Hermione shrugged, "She's pretty, she plays Quidditch. What else?"

Xander shrugged, "I dunno. I just kinda figured…"

"Wrong." Hermione said simply. "Besides, I've been asked by someone else."

* * *

The Yule Ball Fever, as it had been dubbed by one of the Weasley Twins, raged through Hogwarts and only got hotter as the days went by. Xander, for his part, ignored it. He'd already asked his date out and had a yes, and while he wasn't stupid enough to take Wednesday for granted, he was at least in a semi comfortable state of not having to worry about getting a date.

Learning to dance, that was something else.

Luckily there were some basic lessons available, if one was willing to look and ask. Xander was, just barely, but he quickly managed to get the awkward shuffle step of slow dancing down. Enough not to embarrass himself too badly he hoped.

The rest of his time was spent mostly on his own projects. The school had dropped a lot of the workload off, mostly in a head tip to the ongoing tournament, and what there was Xander was already ahead on thanks to Hermione and Wednesday.

So he spent large chunks of his day in the Room of Requirements, tinkering his spell project, practicing dueling or sword play (He was terrified of meeting Gomez again without having practiced. The man would SLAUGHTER him… with a smile.).

He'd been pleased, and shocked to be honest, to find that Harry had modified the Spell Phone he'd given him. The autodialer Harry had added was a bit limited originally, but with Hermione's help Harry had improved it to something Xander was contemplating incorporating into the device on a base level. It was great, but as it stood it required a fairly competent spell caster to add names and 'numbers' to the phone. That was a bit of a pain, in Xander's opinion, and limited its value to anyone but 'full' Wizards and Witches.

Since he had a lot of family and friends that weren't exactly in that category, that was simply no good at all.

Still, that was a summer project, Xander had decided.

Immediately he was working on spacial charms from the grimoire. The reality warping spells that permitted the creation of such fantastic contraptions as his multi compartment trunk and all sorts of insane aspects of wizarding life.

Jessie and his pals would refer Xander to Bags of Holding, Portable Holes, and those sorts of things from pop culture as ideas, and indeed he had spent some time reading up on any of those materials before he started working. He'd purchased a few slabs of wood in Hogsmeade their last visit, and with the help of the Room Xander had been able to work them into a very nice dark mahogany door frame and door.

The next bit came straight from the grimoire, and was a combination of etching and mathematics that was intended to make the outcome he wanted possible. Basically all sides of the frame, and its solid back, were carefully escribed with runes to absorb the magic he was going to cast, anchoring the effect with an 'indefinite' effect.

He couldn't call it permanent, since that was effectively impossible. All spells ran out sooner or later, depending on how they charged their base runes, where the objects were kept, and how talented the caster was. In theory it was possible to keep enchanted items powered for an 'indefinite' period, in practice most lasted only a few years even after careful etching was completed.

That had taken him weeks, mostly cause he was working with Harry so much, but since the First Task had ended and the Ball was announced Harry had started to flake out a bit. Xander thought he was getting cocky over being in first place, at least until he realized that Harry was basically freaking out about the Ball.

Whatever. In Xander's mind that just gave him some time to work on his projects, including this one.

With all the ground work completed, Xander admired his work for a minute before breaking out his wand. This was going to be tough, Xander suspected. Not so much in terms of skill, the spellwork was fairly simple in practice. However Xander wasn't sure about his endurance, since all the work had to be done in one shot. He couldn't take a break or all the prep work would be ruined.

He took a breath, Ollivander wand in hand, and with a smirk tapped it twice on the wooden desk by his side before he began waving it in earnest.

First up were the expansion charms, aimed at the frame, basically just pushing the back of the door out about six feet. Nothing difficult about it, really. It would be possible to teach first years how to do that much if parents were generally afraid of what they would do to their homes unsupervised.

He charged the runes then, getting a few seconds breather as the glow faded.

Next came the sizing charms, aimed at the whole of the door. He carefully reduced it to about the size of a briefcase, locked that position in the runic design, then inserted an automatic trigger to return it to normal size.

By this point, only perhaps ten minutes into his work, Xander was feeling a little lightheaded as he looked over the results of his toil. So far he had a fairly nice looking resizable door that opened up into a six foot deep closet. The inside looked kinda weird too, he noted as he stepped in a checked the walls.

The woodgrain was obviously stretched out, looking like a badly zoomed photo on Willow's PC. Well, ok, not so much Xander decided. Willow's PC showed a lot of dots, this was just like someone took silly putty and stretched it out.

Oh well, he decided. He'd worry about looks later, a nice coat of paint would take any weirdness out if it was still there when he was done with it.

With that in mind, Xander pulled out his wand and got back to work. From inside the 'closet' Xander pushed the walls out in each direction, until he reached the edge of what he could manage. When he was done, Xander wiped his brow and his eyes carefully, and noted that the room was now about twelve feet wide by maybe fifteen deep. He nodded, smiling weakly and nodded.

"Did it." He mumbled out just before he collapsed.

* * *

Xander was awakened to shaking and someone yelling at him.

"Xander! Xander, are you alright? Come on, mate! Wake up!"

He opened his eyes slowly, and grimaced as a blurry image of Harry Potter shook him. "Lemme alone. Five more minutes."

"Xander, you're in the Room of Requirements! Do I need to get the professors?"

Xander swung, backhanding a surprised Harry Potter and sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Ow! Bloody hell! What was that for?"

Xander rolled to a sitting position, "Get the professors my arse. We've got a good thing here, mate. You tell people about this room and we'll never get any time in it."

"You git! You hit me for that? You could have just said 'No, Harry, don't get the Professors'!" Harry snarled as he rubbed the side of his face.

"No, Harry, don't get the professors." Xander parroted.

"Git." Harry mumbled, shaking his head. He looked around the room inside a room they were in, and frowned. "Why'd you have the Room create this place?"

"I didn't." Xander rubbed his temples. "God I have a headache."

"Want to go to the infirmary?"

"Naw." Xander shook his head, digging into his pockets. "Expected this."

He produced a travel pack of extra strength tylenol and exited the room, grabbing a bottle of water from the desk.

"Headache potions are faster."

"Not significantly." Xander said, shaking his head as he swallowed four pills and all the water. "Not for this."

"What happened?"

"Magical exhaustion." Xander replied, "I thought I had more reserves than that. I'm dehydrated, mostly, that's the cause of the headache. Water and rest is the only cure."

"Wow, how'd you know that?"

"Your mom told me." Xander half grinned, "It's in the warning notes of the grimoire."

"Oh," Harry nodded. He'd gone over those, and vaguely remembered something like that. He hadn't tried anything so taxing yet, though. "What'd you do?"

Xander nodded to the door that was sitting in the center of the room, and idly kicked it shut. It stayed in place, now just a door that led apparently to nowhere. "Spacial expansion charms. Next time I get you do them, you'd probably think it was taxing as a damned Leviosa."

Harry frowned, but didn't say anything as Xander stumbled a bit on his way over to the 'door'.

"Now, did I get it all right?" Xander asked himself as he reached up and grabbed the top of the door frame and pulled.

Harry jerked in surprise as the door slowly shrank down on itself, until it was about the size of a briefcase. Xander then picked it up and tucked it under his arm, "Man I'm wiped. What time is it, Mate?"

"Couple hours before curfew." Harry shrugged, "I was going to get a little dueling practice in."

Xander nodded, "Finally get a date, did you?"

Harry flushed red, "Yeah. Parvati is going with me."

"Cool. She's one of the twins, right? The non-redheaded variety?" Xander smirked.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah. She in Gryffindor, her sister is in Ravenclaw. Padma is going with Ron."

Xander couldn't help it. He snorted.

"What?"

"A Ravenclaw is going out with Ron Weasley? Did she lose a bet?" Xander asked, grinning.

"Hey! That's my mate you're talking about!"

"I didn't know you two kissed a made up." Xander returned, shrugging. "I stand by my point. Still, I don't know the guy much so who knows, maybe I'm totally off base. Still, you've got to admit, he's not the guy you'd expect to interest the brainy girls."

"What do you mean?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Who talked you into taking the easy classes?"

"Ron… but…"

"Yeah, I've had to listen to Hermione bitch about everything you and Ron have done for going on four years now." Xander said as he waved over his shoulder at Harry on his way out the door. "I'm gonna go sleep for, like fifty years or so. See you tomorrow, dude."

Harry scowled as his American friend left the room, annoyed at the boy's comments. Sure they were mostly true, but it was impolite or something to say, right?

He pushed that thought aside, and asked the room for a dueling platform with targets. As it responded, Harry just pushed everything out of his mind. He knew he'd been slacking off lately, worries about the social side of matters getting to him, and he had a lot to catch up on.

* * *

Xander's luck for the day was holding par to course as, when he got back to the Slytherin dorm there was a party going on. He thanked whatever Gods there were that the tylenol was kicking in, as Wizarding music cranked way past sane levels was SO not what he wanted to deal with.

It seemed Draco had managed to get the 'crème of the crop' from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons together for a little pre-yule party. Xander wished he'd stayed in the Room. He sighed, pushing his way through the crowded common room, trying to make his way to his dorm. He was almost there when his arm was hooked and he was pulled to the side.

"Daph, I'm beat." He said, noting the blond that had latched onto his arm.

"Oh shush, it's a party, Xander. I'm doing you a favor," She said, smiling widely. "Have you met Miss Delacour yet?"

At the mention of the name Xander blinked and threw up his Occlumency shields again, then noted tiredly that they were already up. He smiled at the blond, "Miss Delacour, a pleasure."

"And you, Monsieur…?"

"Harris, this is Alexander Harris, from America." Daphne said, "He's been doing some work with the Malfoy and Black families while in Britain."

"How interesting."

Xander stared at Daphne, "How do you know that?"

"I speak with Narcissa Malfoy, of course." She said, "And she asked me to make certain you were introduced around."

"Oh lord, save me from politics and parties." Xander grumbled, drawing a laugh from Fleur.

"I know how you feel."

"I'll bet," Xander said with a tired smile, "And for the record, most of my 'work' has been helping the *Potter* family settle some paperwork, the Black and Malfoy connections are incidental."

"I was not aware that there was such a connection," Fleur admitted, puzzled. "I had been told that Monsieur Potter and Monsieur Malfoy were enemies."

"That might be a tad harsh, but accurate." Xander admitted, "But Lord Black is Harry's Godfather, and Narcissa Malfoy was born a Black."

"Ah. I begin to see, yes."

"At any rate, it's nothing big. I was just in the country, and Sirius asked for a favor."

"Sirius Black, yes I read of that case. Rather shocking, in this day and age." Fleur said, shaking her head. "To be sent to such a place without trial…"

Daphne nodded, "That's causing quite a stir in the Wizengamot, actually."

"I thought they didn't have to have a trial?"

"Oh, they don't. That's not the problem, actually." Daphne admitted, "No, it's the fact that he was sent to Azkaban. Simple courtesy says that you don't send someone to a prison like that without a trial, especially not a head of house. No, they're arguing that he should have been locked in the Tower if someone wanted him out of the way."

"Of London, you mean?" Xander asked, bemused, "I didn't think they used that anymore."

"Well, obviously not if they're sending people to Azkaban without trial." Daphne rolled her eyes, "Aren't you paying attention?"

"Apparently not." Xander rubbed his temple.

"Good lord, Harris, what have you been doing? You look trashed."

"Oh joy." Xander sighed, shaking his head before answering, "I've been doing some enchanting, if you must know, Draco."

Draco smirked as he swaggered over, "I think you're aiming a little high if you're trying to enchant these two, they're already the most enchanting things in the room."

"Merci, Monsieur Malfoy." Fleur nodded, extending her hand.

Draco accepted it and clicked his heels as he bowed lightly over it, "Madam. You light up the room, unlike a certain grungy American I could mention."

"Terribly Sorry, Draco, I must have missed my notice for the party. I was working this afternoon," Xander said, a little tweaked by Draco's comment, and a bit envious of the show of manners. He knew all that, but Draco was so much better at it, even when Xander could remember to use them.

"On what?" Fleur asked, smiling slightly.

"Just some spacial compression charms," Xander said, rubbing the back of his head.

"I thought you said enchanting?" Daphne asked, confused.

"Well, yeah, I had to make them last longer than a few minutes." Xander answered. "Hence, you know, the enchantments."

"Full enchantment?" Fleur asked, now impressed. "That's a little ahead of your year."

"Was harder to power the runes than write them." Xander said, "That's why I'm so out of it."

Fleur nodded, "Yes, I imagine so. You were making a trunk then?"

"No, already have one of them." Xander said, "I made a door."

The three blonds stared at him.

"You made a *what*?" Draco asked in consternation.

Xander sighed, hefting the object in his arms. "A door."

Draco frowned, looking sideways at it. "It's kinda small."

Xander groaned, "I am too tired for this shit."

The two girls snickered softly, much to Draco's irritation.

"What?"

"He told you he was working on spacial compression charms." Daphne said, shaking her head.

"The question is," Fleur asked lightly, "A door to what?"

"Privacy." Xander answered with a shrug.

"A valuable portal, then." Fleur responded.

"Around here? Yeah." Xander said, glancing at Draco, who was glaring back at him.

Fleur giggled slightly, slapping a hand over her mouth in annoyance. She hated it when she giggled.

"Draco!" Blaise Zabini called out as he approached, "You need to hear this."

Draco turned to look at the tall dark skinned boy, "What is it?"

"Krum here was telling us he has a date to the ball." Blaise said, nodding back over his shoulder.

"So?" Draco rolled his eyes, "He's Viktor Krum. Of course he has a date."

"He told us who." Blaise said.

"I do not see the problem," Krum said, joining the conversation. "I merely said that I asked Hermy own ninny to the ball."

Draco and Xander both started choking, albeit for different reasons.

"The *mudblood*!?" Draco choked out, only to get an elbow in the stomach as Xander managed to stop laughing long enough to retaliate. "Ow! Damn it, Harris!"

"Do not call her that." Krum growled, towering over both of them.

Xander shoved Draco's head down, knocking the blond to the floor. "Sorry about him, he's a bit of a dork. What did you say her name was again?"

"Her my own ninny." Krum said slowly, scowling.

Xander crumbled down beside Draco, laughing to kill himself. "Oh god, make it stop!"

"Why is the stupid boy laughing?"

Neither Daphne, nor Fleur were willing to answer, though they both were smiling themselves.

"Sorry, sorry," Xander said from where he was getting up, pushing Draco back down to the floor to push himself up. "My bad. I'm tired, a little giddy. Yeah, that's all. I… I just… Her my own ninny? Oh God."

"Why is stupid boy laughing at me again!?"

"Ow! Get off you lump!" Draco growled from where Xander was now sitting on him. "Goyle! Crabbe! Get this idiot off me!"

Xander looked around, concerned about the two mountains coming at him. He snickered again when he spotted them.

"Crabbe! Goyle! Where the bloody hell are you!?" Draco yelled from the ground.

Xander knocked on Draco's head, "Did you get someone to smuggle in Firewhisky?"

"Ow! Cut that out! And yes, what of it!?"

"Look over there."

Draco looked in the direction Xander was pointing and groaned, slumping in place. Crabbe and Goyle were slumbering against a wall in the corner, a jug of Firewhisky between them.

"I'm going to make you pay for this, Harris." Draco grumbled from underneath Xander.

"Call my friend a mudblood again and I'll see if you have any useful wand components packed in that scrawny body, Dracy." Xander said, thumping Draco once more before getting up.

He glanced at Krum, "And the same goes for you if you hurt her."

Krum looked back at him, "Is stupid boy done laughing yet?"

"Yes, and stupid boy has moved on to threatening." Xander countered, then paused. "Wait. Can I have a do over on that?"

Daphne and Fleur were softly snickering off to the side, causing a petulant Xander to pout. "I didn't mean it like that, damn it."

Krum, thankfully, seemed to have missed the 'joke'. "You think to threaten me? You are stupid, boy."

"I think we already established that." Draco grumbled as he got to his feet, dusting himself off.

Xander sighed, setting his 'door' down by one of the couches that adorned the common room. He then dropped down into the seat and looked tiredly up at Krum as he put his booted feet up on the table. The snakeskin motorcycle style boots caught some attention almost immediately.

"Let me put it in a way you can understand, Jockstrap." Xander said, "The last *thing* that hurt Herms, I'm wearing its skin on my feet. You? You look good for a pair of gloves. Nuff said?"

Krum looked at Xander's feet in confusion, "A snake hurt Hermy Own Ninny?"

Xander started laughing again, then glowered, "Cut that out! This is serious!"

"That's not snakeskin." Blaise said softly. "Merlin, Harris. Those were just rumors…"

"Zat is Basilisk skin." Fleur said, stunned, "But I have never seen a piece so large. To make boots like zis, takes many skins? Non?"

Xander chuckled, "non. One skin, and plenty left where that came from. So, listen here Jockstrap, be nice to my friend or we'll have words. Got me?"

Krum looked confused, "Who is 'jockstrap'?"


	94. Chapter 94

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The remainder of the term was almost anticlimactic in feeling, Xander felt. It came and went with surprising speed, leaving them preparing for the end of term leaving in short order. Xander had already packed his trunk, once again planning to spend his holidays with the Addams at their invitation. He hoped that the Yule ball went fairly well and didn't start things off on a sour note.

He shrank his 'door' and laid it out on his trunk, a quick sticking charm keeping them together. The elves would deliver it to the Express in the morning. All he'd left out was his Dress Robes, and the things he'd need for the night.

That all done he took a seat and let out a long breath. It felt like forever since he'd left Sunnydale in the summer, one event after another piling up on him and everyone really, until it was almost a blur. He smiled, hand flopping out, and palmed his Spell Phone. Time to talk to Wills, she'd kill him if he didn't call a couple times a month at least.

"Dial Wills." He said softly, tipping his hat, imaginary though it was, to Harry's little addition to the device as the runic wheels spun into place. In a moment it chimed softly, and then he heard a familiar voice come through.

"Xander?"

"Hey Wills, how's it going?"

"Good, I got straight A's!" She said, obviously giddy.

"No shock there." Xander smiled, easily picturing his friend hopping in place as she talked. "I did alright myself. Mostly E's with an O or two."

"You're doing so much better, and I'm SO jealous you're at Hogwarts." She said, sounding both peeved and pleased at once. Xander loved how she could manage that.

"I can't help it, Wills. I try and try to slack off, but magic is too cool."

"Don't you DARE even joke about that Mister. Resolve face over here." Willow growled, "You do your best or I'll come over there and so help you…"

Xander laughed softly, "Thanks Wills."

"So…" She said, after a long moment of quiet. "Yule ball tonight, huh?"

Xander nodded, then almost slapped himself since he knew that she couldn't see the movement. "Yeah."

"Looking forward to it?"

"Yeah." Xander nodded, "Scared though."

"Of Wednesday?" Willow's smirk was so huge Xander could *hear* it.

"Of course, do I look stupid to you?"

"Never to me, Xan." Willow answered softly. "You'll be ok. Treat her right, she deserves your best just like you do."

"Yeah, will do. Hey, how's Jessie?"

Jessie had become a bit of a sore point for the separated duo, the teenage boy had grown into a… well, teenage boy. Willow didn't see him much anymore, as he spent most of his time in the company of Mears, Wells, and Levinson. Xander was annoyed with him for ditching Willow, but also felt bad cause there was a huge part of his life that he couldn't share with his oldest guy pal.

Really, it was confusing and a mess, and he just didn't know what to do about it or how to fix things.

Willow, for her part, seemed in much the same boat only she resented Jessie for being there but not BEING there.

"He passed his classes, still spends all his time role playing and computer gaming." She answered finally.

"K. And you? Besides class, I mean?"

"Been working on computers more than magic," Willow answered candidly. "I love magic when you're around, but it's not the same alone. Besides, my Dad bought me a great computer to 'encourage' my studies."

"Hey, whatever you want to do." Xander said, "The mutt still hanging around?"

Willow giggled, "Sirius is in LA more now, but he still drops by the junkyard a couple times a month at least. I think he's been spending time at Gringotts."

"Makes sense. Anyway, I've got to go. Time to get ready for the ball and all that rot, you know?"

"Happy holidays, Xander. Have fun. That's an order, Mister."

"Yes Ma'am." Xander grinned, "Harris out."

"That's not funny anymore!" Willow called out as he closed the phone, chuckling.

"Says you." Xander said to no one, pocketing his spell phone with a grin on his face.

He needed that.

* * *

Harry was panicking.

He knew he was, knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help it. He and Ron were in the Common Room in their dress robes, waiting on the girls to come down.

"What am I doing here?" He asked, shaking his head. "What do I know about dancing?"

"More than me, Mate." Ron said, looking a little peaked himself. "You'll be fine, calm down."

Harry took a breath, nodding as he turned around… and promptly attempted to swallow his tongue.

Hermione came down the stairs first, her blue dress and carefully done hair shocking him into almost falling backwards onto his ass, but being saved by Ron who held him up.

"Ouff! Merlin, Potter, how can you be that heavy when you're that sma…" Ron trailed off, staring at Hermione, who was looking nervously at them. He shook his head, then dropped Harry on his arse. "Merlin, Mione. You look great."

"Thank you, Ron." Hermione said, nodding slightly.

"Yeah. What he said," Harry growled, picking himself up off the ground.

"And thank you Harry." Hermione said, but glared at him and jerked her head toward Parvati.

Harry, thankfully, caught on. "You're beautiful tonight, Parv."

"Thank you, Harry." Parvati smiled, taking his arm. "Shall we?"

"I guess so."

Ron fell into step beside Hermione as they left to meet up with their own dates, and glanced sideways at her. "You're really going on all out for this."

"For what? My date?" She asked, confused.

"Right. We both know you don't have a date, Hermione, you don't have to keep pretending."

Hermione stared at him, stunned into speechlessness more than anything.

"You can admit it, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Hermione's jaw wavered, opening and closing, until she finally turned on her heal and stalked away from him.

Ron watched her go. "Poor girl, she's probably going to cry her eyes out now."

Harry and Parvati were staring at him, "What the hell was that, Ron?"

"C'mon, Harry, you know she doesn't have a date. She'd have told us who it was otherwise."

"I wouldn't have." Parvati growled, "And for your information, Hermione was asked ages ago."

"What? By who!?"

"None of your business." She said simply, turning back on her own heal and heading for the hall with Harry in tow.

Rob chased after them, "Seriously? By why wouldn't she tell us who?"

"Merlin, I wonder." Parvati snapped, glaring at Ron and then Harry.

Harry noticed it, but just shook his head. "I'm not saying anything."

"Smarter than Weasley, then, at least." Parv said, "Not that that is saying much."

She turned around, jabbing a finger into Ron's chest. "If you blather on like that with my sister, I swear Ronald, we'll show you that the Weasley family doesn't have a monopoly on terror twins."

"What'd I say?" Ron asked, again chasing after them as they headed for the hall.

* * *

Xander felt his stomach twist up as Wednesday approached him where he was standing outside the hall. He nodded to her as she came to a stop by his side, and she nodded back.

"You look…" He said, eyeing her tightly cut dress, and smiled, "Like you."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "A good thing, I hope?"

"I wouldn't have spiked a heart to your common room door if I didn't like how you look." Xander replied, bowing slightly from the waist. Then he paused and tilted his head, "Actually I might have, since I also like the way you think and the way you talk… even if you do scare the bejeebus out of me."

That earned him a slight smile, "I find myself rather… not unpleased with the way you talk and think. You're still no Uncle Fester in the looks department, though."

"Be still my beating heart." Xander said dryly, then smirked, his nerves entirely gone. "Shall we?"

"We shall." She answered, sliding her arm through the crook of his own, and the two marched into the hall where a crowd was forming to await the first dance of the Champions.

* * *

The crowd shifted a bit, the intensity growing as the suspense built. They wanted to start the first dance they'd had a Hogwarts, but they also wanted very much to see the Champions and their dates. Xander eyed the crowd, noting the familiar faces, and the ones that were missing. He already knew who all the champions were bringing, so there were no surprises of course.

He found Ron in the crowd, standing near the two horridly dressed twins, and was bemused by the earnest glare the other boy was sending through the room. Whatever Ron was looking for, Xander supposed he must have found though, because he relaxed after a bit a looked a little smug.

Weird.

Xander ignored him, turning his attention back to Wednesday. The Addams scion was dressed in a black gown that was practically painted on, a strapless design that Xander was honestly shocked she could move in. It was very much in keeping with what he had come to expect of her and her family.

Gorgeous, expensive, horrifically impractical… and yet somehow worked anyway. Beside her, he was rather dull in his silk robes with sterling silver trim, but he could handle being dull. Being bright had a bad side effect of trouble around Hogwarts.

He fetched Wednesday a drink, and had just returned when Albus Dumbledore stepped into the limelight again and pronounced the ball open with the introduction of the champions.

The lights dimmed, spotlights pinning the couples as they came into the hall and the crowd sucked in a breath.

Fleur was stunning, as expected. Roger Davies looked as dull beside her as Xander felt beside Wednesday. Cedric and Cho looked… perfect as they entered. Xander had to blink, but the scene didn't change. Viktor came next, and Xander couldn't help but suck in a breath of shock. He swallowed hard, glancing sideways at Wednesday and cringed.

"Indeed." Wednesday said, amused. "She looks beautiful."

"Yeah." Xander agreed. "But so do you. And she doesn't terrify me."

"You say the nicest things."

Xander turned to look at Wednesday, who looked back steadily at him. They entirely missed Harry's entry into the hall.

* * *

The students watched as the champions started their dance, and Xander had to wince in sympathy as it quickly became obvious that Harry hadn't even gotten to his level of shuffle competence with dancing. He and Padma just looked awkward as they shifted around the floor through the first dance.

As the dance ended, Xander joined in the polite applause as the Champions finished up. The next piece of music started after a short pause and the rest of the school filtered out onto the floor, and Xander gingerly grasped Wednesday as they began to shuffle along with the rest of the school.

Wednesday was both somewhat pleased, however also rather disappointed in her date by the end of the first dance. On the plus side, he hadn't stepped on her toes, which was better, she supposed, than many of the girls around her experienced if one were to judge by the muffled yelps and apologies, and yet…

"What?"

She looked up at him, face schooled to show no emotion or hint of her thoughts, "nothing."

Xander smiled crookedly, "Try that on someone who can't read you. What's wrong?"

Her eyes searched his face, and she quickly realized that he wasn't kidding. He was actually reading her. Her parents were the only ones who did that, even Pugsley wasn't adept at reading her when she didn't want to be read.

Alright, she decided, if he wanted to act like an Addams… well, she would treat him as one.

"I'm dissatisfied with your dancing."

A flash of hurt echoed in his eyes, which almost made her regret her choice of words. Almost.

Xander winced, "Sorry. I guess I need lessons."

"Father will be put out." Wednesday said flatly.

Xander's eyebrows went up. What did Gomez have to do with this? Was she actually going to set her dad on him? That would be, like, REALLY bad. But… That didn't seem like something Wednesday would do.

"H… he will?"

Ok, Gomez scared him.

"You've obviously been neglecting your lessons." She said simply.

"I have?"

Now Xander was just confused.

The music ended and they fell apart, Xander feeling a little lost and more than a little dejected. Wednesday, however, simply drew out her wand and snapped it in the direction of the band. The lead singer jumped like he'd been goosed, his yelp startling everyone into stopping what they were doing and look over at him as his hands began to move on his guitar.

"Footwork," Wednesday told Xander seriously, "Is everything."

Xander's eyes widened as she stepped into him, the opening chords of the tango playing.

"En Guard." She told him simply, pressing hard into his chest.

Xander shifted his feet automatically, as if he were entering a fencing duel, and the two looked into each other's eyes as they waited for the moment to move. Wednesday was waiting for the chord, Xander was waiting for the first move of his 'opponent', still not entirely certain what she was thinking.

The chord came as the rest of the band confusedly caught up to their lead guitarist's change of pace and Wednesday moved, eyes boring into Xander as she said one move.

"Attack."

Xander moved forward as Wednesday backed away, their feet interlocking as they moved. He almost stumbled as she turned, leading him into the spin, but kept from messing up.

"Defend." She said, stepping into him as he automatically fell back.

Three steps back, Wednesday smirked, "Parry."

Xander twisted, spinning her around as people fell away from them and the floor cleared.

Attack. Xander would stride into Wednesday, his feet following the pattern he'd learned from Gomez.

Defend. Xander fell back as Wednesday became the aggressor, pushing him back with a dark and feral stalking motion.

Parry. The couple spun around the floor, twirling around the now empty floor, neither realizing that they were being watched by almost everyone in the hall.

The pattern went on, the two dancers spinning across the floor, the only two people in their world until the song came closer to the end. They came out of a parry, and Wednesday attacked three paces until Xander parried and they twirled again. Then she smiled up at Xander, eyes dancing darkly.

"Now, the coupe."

Xander's eyes widened, but he followed her instruction and lunged forward, his body bending over hers as she leaned backwards and let him come to a stop over her as the music came to a stop.

She looked up at him, amused by the look of stunned shock on his face.

"Wow." Xander mumbled, looking down at her.

"Acceptable." She said simply.

"Ahem."

The duo looked up to see Albus Dumbledore, smiling at them, "Marvelous show, however I think we should let the others back on the floor."

"Do you mind?" Xander shook his head, "We're having a moment here."

Dumbledore looked so surprised by the rejoinder that several people broke out laughing at him as Xander and Wednesday straightened up and strode off in the direction opposite the headmaster. Xander couldn't help but smirk as he passed the Weasley twins.

"Top that."

The twins glared at him for a moment, then looked thoughtfully back at their dates.

"Don't even think it, you two." Angelina glared, "You're both useless on the dance floor."

"Too right," Katie agreed, shaking her head. "Find two more girls to make fools of."

"Do you think we could?" Fred asked his brother.

"Err, I think we shouldn't."

"Why is that, brother of mine?"

"Because Angelina and Katie are looking rather irritated with you for asking."

"Oh dear."

* * *

Xander and Wednesday took a break out from the next dance, walking back toward the tables.

"Hey Wens…"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

She didn't answer, but Xander wasn't really expecting one from the taciturn Addams scion. He just smiled and grabbed a drink for each of them from the table on the way by, then rejoined her.

"Thank you." She nodded, accepting the drink.

He took a seat beside her, "You do know that won't work for any other types of dances, right?"

"You would be surprised how well I can make you dance using a blade."

"Yeah, let's not test that ok? I'll get lessons." Xander laughed.

"You're assuming I'll give you another chance." She countered calmly.

"Or I just don't want to disappoint the next homicidal maniac I ask out." Xander replied in riposte. "I hear it's hazardous to your health."

"No, telling your current homicidal maniac that you're already thinking of the next one is hazardous to your health."

"Are you saying you're mine?" Xander asked with a grin.

Wednesday froze, then slowly looked away, but not before Xander thought that he caught just a hint color in her cheeks. If it had been willow, she'd be burning red, he was sure but he'd take a victory where he could.

* * *

The dance moved on, with Xander and Wednesday taking to the floor again a few more times before Xander noted that Wednesday's relatively 'content' mood suddenly evaporate.

"I'm probably going to regret this, but what's wrong now?" Xander asked as they slowly moved around the floor.

"Look in the corner, over your shoulder." She said, turning them around until Xander could see Harry and Ron sitting in the corner, scowling at the floor while their dates sat beside them, looking depressed.

"Ow." Xander winced, "What's with them?"

"I do not know," She shrugged.

"Why do you care?" Xander asked, his focus back on her. "You don't care much for Harry."

"No, I don't. Padma, however, is one of the few tolerable members of my house."

Xander nodded, "Alright. I've got a win, win, for you."

Wednesday raised an eyebrow in question.

"She's Ron's date, I'll ask her for a dance, you ask Ron." Xander grinned. "Then just be gentle with him."

Wednesday again raised her brow.

"You know, the way you treat door to door salesmen."

"That may just work."

* * *

Padma Patil was surprised when the Slytherin approached her. She knew him, of course. He was in her year and had attracted the attention of the entire school a few times in the past years, though for now it was that incredible dance that stuck in her mind. Wednesday Addams was beside him, and that alone basically put any thought of attraction to the young Slytherin out of her mind.

She wasn't going to annoy the Addams.

So when he smiled at her and came a stop, bowing slightly from the waist, Padma Patil almost had a heart attack.

"May I have this dance?"

Padma couldn't help it, her eyes darted fearfully toward Wednesday, but the other girl wasn't looking at her. Instead she was standing in front of Ron Weasley, of all people, and from the looks of it the red head was scared out of his wits.

' Who would have guessed it? ' Padma thought, a little unkindly, ' Ron Weasley has wits to be scared out of, and he's smart enough to recognize a threat to his life when it's in front of him. '

Her eyes widened as Wednesday dragged Ron out onto the floor, the redhead's face frozen in agony as Wednesday dug her fingers under his arm and into the nerves of his pectoral muscles.

"Ahem."

Padma turned back, startled by the voice so close to her. Harris was smiling at her as he held his hand out, and this time she tentatively took it and was drawn out onto the floor.

"What's going on?"

"Wednesday likes you." Harris told her. "So we're going to make it so you have a good night, if it has to be done over Ron's dead body, well that's a price that Wens and I are willing to pay."

Padma giggled nervously. "I didn't think she even knew I existed."

They were slowly dancing around the floor now, and Padma was enjoying her first real dance of the night.

"She isn't the most expressive of people, but she notices everything." Harris told her as he held her, "She told me you were 'tolerable'. High praise indeed, I only got an 'acceptable' after our dance earlier."

"I…" She looked at him, incredulous. She'd seen better dances, to be sure, but not from people her own age. At least not outside of a show, "I… Thank you."

"No worries." He said, looking over her shoulder. "I think Wens cracked him already."

As they turned around Padma could see a pale and shaking Ron Weasley walking unsteadily in their direction. He came up to them and took a shuddering breath, "Uh… right, May I cut in?"

Padma was a little disappointed when Xander nodded and stepped back, allowing Weasley to step in. He didn't head toward Wednesday, however.

"Where are you going?" Padma asked, unable to hold her curiosity.

"Now I have to have a chat with Harry." He said over his shoulder, smiling. "He needs to wise up."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then I ask Parvati for a dance, and Harry knows that if I do that Wens will have all that extra time on her hand." He grinned. "Harry won't want that to happen."

"Too bloody right." Ron shuddered.

"Ciao." Xander waved over his shoulder, heading for where Harry and Parvati were sitting, Harry's eyes fully on Xander's approach.

"Alright, Potter, we need to have a chat." Xander said as he approached.

Harry scowled, but nodded, and got up. "Fine."

"I'm terribly sorry for borrowing your date," Xander bowed to Parvati, "I'll return him in one piece as quickly as possible."

The mumbled response from the second of the Patil twins didn't exactly make it sound like she cared. Xander just shook his head as he dragged Harry off.

"Ok, Man, you're keeping me away from my date and that's not cool, got it?" Xander said as soon as they were away.

"I didn't ask you to come over."

"No, but Mrs. Malfoy will skin me alive if I allow you to embarrass yourself, and her family, here tonight." Xander countered with a growl, "So you either listen to me now, or I dance with Parvati while you get the same thing Weasley got. Pick one."

Harry swallowed, but sighed. "Fine."

"Why the hell are you ruining Parvaties evening?"

That wasn't what Harry had expected, actually. He'd been steeled for the whole 'shaming the family' speech, and was blind-sided by Xander's question.

"What?"

"Did she do something to you that you want to humiliate her?" Xander asked, "I mean, bring her here as a Champions date, then ditch her publically? Cause that's pretty shitty, mate."

"No! I mean, I just wanted to…" Harry stammered out.

"Yeah, we all know what you wanted. The school knows it by now," Xander rolled his eyes, "And personally I think you're an idiot. If you wanted a smart hotty you had one closer than Cho Chang. That said, you asked Parvati. She said yes, and gave you your opening dance… now the rest of the evening is HERS."

Harry looked at his feet, once confronted with it he had to admit he was being a git. "She's going to hate me."

"And you'll deserve it, but before that you owe her a night of dancing and maybe some decent conversation. So moon over Chang tomorrow, tonight belongs to Patil. Fair deal?"

Harry nodded.

"Good," Xander smiled, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "I wasn't really looking forward to siccing Wednesday on you. She doesn't like you for some reason."

"Tell me something I don't bloody know."

"You'd better hurry up and apologize for being a git, or else I WILL sic Hermione on you in the morning." Xander said with a smile.

Harry groaned. He'd rather deal with Wednesday.


	95. Chapter 95

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Hermione was over the moon. She hadn't really expected much from her date, to be honest. Viktor was nice enough, of course, but he sounded rather simple given his problems with the language. She'd learned quickly, though, that he was more intelligent than he sounded.

' Of course, ' She thought with a wry smile, ' He really would have to be. '

She was going to have to kill Xander, she supposed. It really was the only way. Nothing short of death would keep him from calling her, Her My Own Ninny.

Things had been a little rough for a while, though the first dance had been amazing, and she had been stunned by Xander and Wednesday's follow up a few minutes later. Mildly annoyed as well, if she were to be brutally honest, since they had stolen the spotlight from the champions and, well, her.

That was nothing, though, not compared to watching Ron and Harry trying to single… er, well, double handedly bring down everyone in the hall. Between Harry's glum faced moon eyes at Cho Chang and Ron just plain glaring at her all night, well Hermione was just grateful that Wednesday and Xander had elected to step in.

Otherwise she would have had to, and that would have ruined Viktor's evening as well as her own.

After that, though, the evening was simply amazing.

She had no other words for it. Viktor was the consummate gentleman, and had waited on her hand and foot through the entire affair. He knew how to dance, though not as well as Xander… surprisingly.

Honestly. Where did the boy learn to do THAT anyway?

Hermione had been forced to push that question aside so many times by the end of the night that she was honestly sick to death of her Slytherin friend, and for once it wasn't even his fault really.

Ron and Harry had been more attentive to their dates as the evening went on as well, dancing fairly often and, while Ron still shot glares at her and Viktor, Hermione had been surprised to see Harry focus almost entirely on Parvati for the rest of the evening without fail.

' I knew he was better than that. ' She thought.

After the ball she had gone for a walk with Viktor on the grounds, and he'd proven a surprisingly good conversationalist once she got through his limited command of the English language.

' Really need to learn Bulgarian, ' Hermione thought idly. It would be good for her, honestly. Another language was no weight to carry, after all.

She still couldn't believe how very much had happened all in one night, even by the next morning.

It had been a fantasy ball beyond her wildest dreams.

* * *

Harry groaned as he awoke that morning. It had been a long night, and he really wasn't proud of most of it. Still, Parv had forgiven him so maybe he hadn't messed up too badly. She seemed happier than Padma was before they went to bet, though now that Harry thought of it he probably shouldn't base his skill with girls on his best mate.

Ron was a great guy, but smooth he wasn't, Harry thought as he sat up and glanced over to where Ron was still sleeping.

The redhead snorted, rolled over, and went back to snoring as Harry got up and fetched his robes. He had a lot to think about, he decided. He'd screwed up bad the night before, and as much as Harry hated to admit it, he would have done even worse if Xander hadn't knocked some sense into him.

No matter what his problems were, he didn't have any right to bring pain to Parv over it.

He'd been doing that, he realized. Messing up, that is.

He grabbed his wand from the nightstand, and headed out.

He had some things to work out, some decisions to make even.

* * *

Xander glanced across at Wednesday as the Express approached London.

The night before had been pretty fun, amazing even. Wednesday had surprised him over and over, almost entirely pleasant surprising even, which in itself was a rather shocking development for Wednesday.

He smiled, remembering the look on Ron's face when she had a 'talk' with him. Bloody hilarious.

"What?" Wednesday asked, not looking at him or even opening her eyes.

"Just remembering last night."

"It was… pleasant." She admitted. "You danced well."

"No, I was thinking about you scaring the crap out of Ron, actually."

She opened her eyes, half turning to look at him, her expression rather dry, "Oh?"

"What can I say? You were amazing." Xander grinned.

"Hardly." Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Scaring his like is not much challenge. You should have let me try my hand with Potter. He might have proven a challenge."

"The last thing the ball needed was Irresistible Force Addams slamming headlong into Immovable Object Potter," Xander countered, "You want to scare the heck out of him, why don't you join our dueling practices?"

Wednesday shrugged, "Perhaps. I expect to be busy in the New Year, however."

"Oh? With what?"

She looked away, "Family business."

* * *

The platform at Nine and Three Quarters was crowded, as usual, but for one small group who watched as the old steam engine chuffed to a stop. This small group was alone in an island of space between them and everyone else on the whole platform.

They didn't appear to notice anything untoward, however, and merely smiled patiently as the children poured off the train.

"Wednesday!" The woman called out when she saw the dark haired girl step off.

"Alexander!" The man grinned crookedly, waving his cigar in the air in greeting when he saw the girl's companion.

"Mother. Father." Wednesday said as she and Xander arrived in front of the small group.

"So good to see you again," Gomez greeted his daughter with a hearty hug, then clapped Xander on the back before returning his cigar to his teeth.

"How was school?"

"Educational." Wednesday nodded to her mother.

Her parents exchanged glances for a moment, serious inquisition flashing in even the jovial expression of Gomez Addams, but it was gone in a second.

"Good, good. And this Yule Ball you wrote about?" He asked, eyes glinting darkly for just a moment.

"The ball was… enjoyable." She said, thinking for a moment.

Gomez' eyebrows went up, and he exchanged another glance with his wife before they both relaxed. Whatever it was that was bothering their daughter didn't seem related to Alexander, and so it wasn't a concern they needed to address immediately.

"Excellent. So, Alexander my boy, have you kept up with your fencing?"

Xander and Wednesday were the ones exchanging glances this time, amused looks in their eyes. "Yes Sir."

"Ah, wonderful! I look forward to testing your steel." Gomez grinned maniacally, eyes glinting.

"Oh joy." Xander muttered flatly.

"Come now," Morticia said in her calm manner, "We have a ship to catch."

"A ship?" Xander raised his eyebrows, "Where to?"

"France, this year." Gomez replied, "We thought it fitting, what with the tournament at your school and all."

"Yes, we have a lovely château rented," Morticia said, "It's not nearly as wonderfully dank as the castle in Romania, but it's well suitable I assure you."

Xander just nodded, wondering for a bit why they weren't taking a portkey or the car, but finally just shrugged it off as an Addams quirk more than anything else.

He had to admit, he was rather looking forward to the holidays with them. They were such a massive change from his normal routing that it was almost as good as a rest.

* * *

A Château.

Right.

Xander was too used to the Addamses to say anything, but only they would consider a ramshackle old fort off the north coast of France, IN WINTER, to be a suitable holiday home. He couldn't help but crook a grin as they sailed into the old port, "Well, thank God you taught me those warming charms, Wens."

Wednesday eyeballed him without turning to look in his direction, but he detected a hint of a smile on her face as she stepped up onto the rails of the ship and casually hopped off onto the old stone dock. Xander shrugged and hopped over himself, landing beside her.

"It's wonderful, Tish," Gomez said, almost scarying Xander into jumping back on the ship as he appeared right beside the two teens without warning.

' How the hell does he DO that!? ' Xander thought, glaring for a brief moment.

"Of course, mon cher," Morticia said, "Cousin Itt recommended it."

"Tish! That's French!" Gomez said, grabbing her arm and kissing his way up toward her shoulder.

"Why am I not surprised it was the walking shag carpet who recommended this place?" Xander asked, laughing softly.

Wednesday spared him a dark look, but glanced back at her parents to see Gomez had made it up to her mother's neck and was starting to work his way down.

"Gomez, darling, you'll scar the children." Morticia said, pushing him away.

Gomez looked put out, then sighed, "Ah yes… You're right, of course. I suppose they haven't earned that yet."

Xander did a double take, glad he wasn't drinking for fear of a spit take, and then just stared as the couple walked past. "Yeah, ok, they're weirding me out again."

"Of course." Wednesday smiled, "They're Addamses."

Xander sighed, shaking his head as he hefted his trunk and followed along, trying to not notice that Gomez' hands were roaming quite far afield as he helped 'guide' Morticia up the stairs.

* * *

The area they Addamses had laid claim to was surprisingly homey, Xander decided as he setup his room. There was a fireplace in each of the bedrooms, and the view was spectacular, so he wasn't as worried about the cold and draft as he had been. He set his trunk at the foot of the bed, resized his portable door and set it against the outside wall, and laid out the books he'd be working through over the holidays.

In addition to his normal mix of magical endeavors, Xander was working his ways through the Shadowrun sourcebooks and a set of magazines that described various technical advances since World War 2 in fairly simple terms. The one on Tanks had inspired his current spell crafting endeavor, but now he was reading up on Stealth technology and modern flight. His note book was in serious threat of being filled up, just with ideas for how to use old spells in potentially new ways, not to mention the new materials he wanted to test for magical properties.

What he was reading about Carbon, however, had Xander wondering if maybe he had barely scratched the surface of what he could make that wonderful material do. In fact, one of the properties some researchers had found had him awake nights.

It was Willow that brought it to his attention, cause Xander knew that there was ZERO chance he'd have ever dug that deep into scientific journals to discover it. But apparently some researchers had found that nanoscale carbon elements could, when properly aligned, create a near superconducting circuit at room temperature. It had taken some explaining for Willow to convince him of why this would be useful, but it had gelled with something Xander had noticed while dueling with Harry.

When Harry went all out, normally just before pasting Xander to the floor despite Xander's cheating, his wand would actually warm up. Xander had found out one of the times he won, trapping Harry and using the disarming spell on him. When he'd picked up Harry's wand, it was actually hot to the touch.

If magic was following the same rules as most energy seemed to, then the wand was wasting some of Harry's magic by converting it to heat. A superconducting sheath would eliminate that waste, which from what Xander had read of in electrical work, would add between fifteen and twenty percent to the power a caster could bring to the field.

Of course, before he could even think of testing that, Xander had to figure out how to assemble a nano-molecularly aligned carbon wand.

Yeah.

He had some work to do.

Luckily it was magic, and not science, cause there was no way Xander would have the patience to do that kind of thing without cheating. Magic was really his kind of thing, since it was all about ideas and practical hands on application. He was all about those things.

Well, ok, he stole his ideas. But hands on he kicked ass. And really, who didn't steal ideas nowadays anyway?

Xander scowled a bit, but finally just sighed.

"On the shoulders of Giants," He said, "I can see so much from here, but sometimes I wonder if any of it is really mine to play games with…"

"Philosophical in your old age, lad."

Xander started, looking around to see Gomez smiling from where he was leaning on the stone door frame that led out to the hall. He forced a smile, "Sorry Sir. Sometimes I just… wish I could come up with my own ideas."

"A good goal, I suppose. Your own ideas about what?"

"I don't know, magic I guess." Xander admitted. "I made a fortune on a potions accident, while trying to figure out a prank. I never did figure it out, you know. I steal ideas and materials from non magicals all the time, and I get some cool results, but is any of it really mine?"

Gomez shrugged, "Interesting question, lad. Is anything really anyones?"

* * *

Wednesday merely looked up as her mother entered the room, not saying anything. Neither did Morticia at first, instead opting to silently take a seat at the foot of the bed and wait with her hands crossed on her lap. For a long moment both ordered their thoughts for the conversation ahead, each having ideas of where it was going, though both still holding questions as well.

"I've reviewed your access to the library over the last six months," Morticia said thoughtfully, "It makes for interesting suggestions on your current state of mind."

Wednesday would have flushed red if she were anyone else, as it was her cheeks did take on a tinge of pink. She didn't think her parents had ever looked over her reading selection in the past, at least not since she was six.

"It's been an interesting year, mother."

Morticia's eyebrows went up, "Indeed. You gave away Jetta Addams journal."

That brought Wednesday's head around sharply, "He both deserved and required that, mother."

"Perhaps. Your father and I were worried that maybe you may… fancy the boy, and were making emotional decisions."

THAT was as sharp as a slap in the face to Wednesday, and she jerked back as if she had received as much. After a moment she eyed her mother coldly, "My thoughts on Alexander are my own, and have nothing to do with this."

"Yes, we saw that at the train station." Morticia nodded. "Which brought us to your… other reading materials. Dark territory."

Wednesday sighed, scowling at her mother now that she understood the conversation better. Her parents knew, at least had an idea, of what was really going on but her mother had just used the opportunity to bring something out that she wasn't prepared to speak of yet.

How annoying to be out maneuvered. Even if it is by one's parents.

"One of the old targets is in use at Hogwarts." She said finally.

"Ah." Morticia nodded slowly. "And you intend...?"

"To see it destroyed." Wednesday answered simply.

Morticia nodded, "Which one?"

"The Goblet of Fire."

* * *

"I won't lie to you, lad, it's not an easy question to answer." Gomez said as he considered Alexander's issue. "But worrying that you're a thief of any sort is a little beyond the pale."

"I wish I was so sure." Xander said, smiling slightly.

"At worst, lad, you're a little uncreative." Gomez chuckled, "But I think you're worrying about nothing. Everyone takes their inspiration from the world around them. It's normal, my boy."

"I just want to come up with something that's… MINE, you know what I mean?"

"Nothing more natural, Alex my boy." Gomez said, "Wanting to make a mark on the world is something we all want. Well, most want."

"Most?" Xander asked, half smiling.

"Addamses have a different way of looking at the world, though even we like to make a mark. We just don't usually care about the world." Gomez said seriously, his trademark grin not in evidence. "We make our mark on the Clan."

Xander nodded slowly, though Gomez didn't really think he understood the difference.

"At any rate, lad, let's stop moping and have a little fun, shall we?"

Xander winced. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"

"Only if you're slow on your feet, my boy."

* * *

Christmas with the Addams was an interesting experience, as always, and this time around was no exception. Xander slept like the dead the first night, his afternoon having been spent running like hell from a sword wielding Addams. Gomez wasn't impressed with his footwork, but complimented him on his endurance.

Xander wasn't really sure how to take that.

Today Xander was spending time in France proper, so to speak. The family had arranged transport, in this case a reusable port key for the duration. He was happy that they'd thought ahead, cause the entire Hols out on a fort in the middle of the Straight wasn't his idea of a merry Christmas.

Xander was heading toward the entrance to La Rue du Magie, meandering and enjoying the sights. Wednesday hadn't been interested in shopping, and the rest of the Addams seemed just as antisocial so he decided to head out on his own. He was about halfway down a narrow street a few streets north of La Rue when a group of a dozen or so people swarmed out of a narrow alley and nearly run him over.

He half had his wand drawn as he spun around, but they ignored him as they ran passed, laughing and joking in French as they raced across the street and, to Xander's shock, swarmed up and over anything and everything in their way, including walls.

"Holy shades of Spider-man!" He blurted with a chuckle, tilting his head to the right as the group jumped, crawled, swung, and actually ran up and over the buildings.

"Mixed metaphor, young man."

Xander almost jumped out of his own skin, jumping around to glare at the speaker. "Don't DO that!"

The man smiled, "Sorry. I wasn't trying to sneak up on you, you were merely distracted by the runners."

"Where I come from, running is done on flat surfaces." Xander countered, eyes still drawn to where the last of them was vanishing over the rooftop across from him.

"A limited philosophy. What brings you to France?" The man asked.

"Hols." Xander answered.

"Peculiar. Your accent is mixed, your word choice is all over the map. Where are you from?"

"Cali boy." Xander answered, "School in Scotland."

"Ah, interesting combination." The man answered, extending his hand. "I'm David."

"Xander." Xander replied, shaking the hand and nodding over his shoulder, "You with that bunch of lunatics?"

David smiled, nodding. "We're a club, you could say. Le Art du Movement. The Art of Motion."

"Funny, I didn't see any paintbrushes." Xander drawled slowly.

"You might be surprised, I suspect a few of them have cans of paint on them, not that they'll tell me." David chuckled. "Sorry for them almost running you down, though."

Xander just shrugged it off and the man loped easily off after them, "Hey!"

"What?" David asked, glancing back.

"How do you get into this club anyway?"

David smiled, "You know Concorde Square, near Champs Elysees?"

"I can find it."

"We'll meet there most afternoons."

Xander nodded, "Thanks."

"Hope you know a little francais, young man." David chuckled before turning and loping off at a decent speed, straight into a concrete wall that he scaled easily. Xander then watched as he jumped across to a corner of a building, and scaled the wall in seconds, and then was done.

"Damn. Just like the comic books." Xander grinned, shaking his head as he turned once more toward La Rue du Magie. "This whole world just keeps getting cooler every year."

* * *

La Rue was as spectacular as Xander remembered, and he took his time. He had a fairly long shopping list, mostly gifts for the various people he hung with. Most of his list was easy enough, of course. It was the Addams that, not surprisingly, that continued to drive him to near madness.

Just how DO you shop for people who already have everything they want?

You didn't, not if you were smart. Since Xander didn't consider himself to be smart, he just kept on browsing.

Luckily for him, the magical world was still full of wonders even years after being introduced to it. Even the minor nick-nacks of the magical world held him spell bound. Mad Eye Moody carried some with him at all times, setting them up in class before the students arrived, and packing them up again after everyone had left.

The Foe Glass was a common trinket sold in all magical marketplaces, and Xander glanced over several in just as many shops as he browsed. Most were cheap, he could easily spot the flaws in the material choice. Cheaper metals wouldn't hold a runic charge particularly wrong, causing the devices to wear out in weeks or months at the outside.

He'd love to get his hand on the runic schematics that devised the spell effect, though. Xander had a few ideas, but was honestly perplexed by how it could do what most claimed. He only got as far as a relatively short range 'intent' ward based device, which was pretty cool in and of itself to be honest.

He bought a couple cheap ones to pull apart.

Brooms, of course, were fascinating even though Xander didn't fly much. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy flying, to be honest, but he didn't have time overall. He got in a fair amount of flying while at Hogwarts, mostly on weekends, but never pushed his first Christmas gift from the Addams' to its limit and couldn't really justify the sheer cost of a better model.

He did, however, find a book on broomstick charms.

He bought three copies of that one.

In all truth, there were just too many doodads and gizmos in the magical world to even begin describing, and Xander wanted them ALL. He also wanted to know how the damn things worked.

There was a clock that told you if you were late for something. How the hell did it KNOW?

He saw magical weapons, charmed with curses or perfect balance, or just simply a razors edge that never needed to be honed. Other shops sold clothing with all manner of charms laid on them, from color and shapeshifting to actual defensive counter curses for the paranoid shopper. Common expanded trunks were set out front, single compartment devices similar to his own portable door. Cheap, usually non-magical designs, with expanded spatial charms laid inside. The frighteningly more expensive custom jobs were never advertised, Xander noted quietly as he passed. If you had to ask, you couldn't afford one.

He stocked up on all manner of gizmos and doodads, mostly for his own fun but also as gifts to people who he figured would appreciate them. Willow would probably like one of the automatic makeup compacts he'd found.

That thing annoyed him to no end, much to the amusement of the sales lady. Xander had picked up the gold colored compact, noting that it was actually polished brass, and made the mistake of looking in it. When he closed it afterwards, he was somewhat dismayed to find that it had transferred what he could only determine 'prostitute chique' make up to his face while he was looking into it.

After a LOT of fumbling, and some help from a giggling sales lady, Xander managed to get the crap off his face and also received a quick lesson in its use. Thankfully it had other settings, and he bought a few for the girls in his life, though not until the sales lady promised that each one came with an instruction manual.

The last thing he needed was one of the girls in HIS life looking into one of his gifts and coming out looking like a Hollywood idea of a prostitute.

They'd kill him.

If he were lucky.

If he weren't, and it was oh say… Wednesday who wound up in such a mess?

Xander shuddered. There wasn't enough groveling in existence to stave off the pain.

He was about halfway down his tour of La Rue when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd and smiled at the blond as she approached.

"Fleur. Happy holidays," He said with a slight bow from the waist. "I didn't know you came back to France."

"Oui, Alexander is it?" The French Veela smiled, expression slightly puzzled.

Xander nodded.

"And you are in Paris, why? For the holidays?"

"Yes, I spend my holidays with the Addams Clan," Xander answered, "It tends to be a new place each year."

Fleurs eyes widened. "Addams? Truly?"

Xander grinned, "Yes. Have to love their reputation."

She smiled in return, "It is not so bad for a Veela. I know of their reputation among Wizards, but the Addams have protected many Veela in the past."

Xander nodded, "I can't say I'm surprised. They seem to like… taking in strays, so to speak."

She glared at him, but he cut her off before she could say anything else.

"And I say that as one of the strays," Xander said with a smile. "They've done a lot for me, without being asked."

"Oui." She said slowly, nodding. "I would not, how you say? Phrase it like that, but I understand your meaning."

Xander nodded, "Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it, really."

"Non, I was too touchy." She waved him off, "Being a Veela isn't not the easiest thing, but there are many worse things. How are your holidays going?"

"Well, we just started, but pretty good. Been shopping, Christmas stuff mostly," Xander said, "scouting for ideas, things like that."

"Ideas?"

"New projects to try," he shrugged, "I always have a couple on the go, and I just finished one so I need something new."

"What did you finish?"

"Simple expansion scheme, but on a doorway instead of a trunk." Xander said, "I didn't like the idea of needing a ladder to get into the room compartment of my trunk. Now it'll just be storage."

"Ah yes, I recall now. Impressive. You are, what? Fifth year?"

"Fourth."

"Very impressive." She smiled, then looked around. "Alors, I must go. It was pleasant to see you again, Alexander."

"And you, Fleur." Xander smiled, ending their conversation with the same bow he began it with.

She smiled back, then headed off while Xander took a moment to touch up his Occlumency shields. Even just her presence was a little unnerving, he found. Like she became his best friend while she was present, despite his shields.

' Interesting ability, that. ' He thought as he moved on.

He had more shopping to do, of course.


	96. Chapter 96

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"En Guard!"

Xander barely got his blade up to parry the stabbing attack Gomez sent at his heart, twisting around as the cold steel slid past him and turning the motion into a slash that came in on the older man's left side.

Gomez jumped straight up, bending his legs, and the blade slashed underneath him before he planted his heels down solidly on a nearby desk. "Excellent my boy! So, how was your shopping trip?"

Xander grunted, reversing his motion and thrusting his blade up at his opponent's crotch. He was unsurprised when Gomez back flipped off the desk, landing in the chair behind it. "Not bad, you should have come. Paris is nice in winter."

"Not my style, lad." Gomez shrugged, calmly parrying Xander's follow up slashes without getting up.

"Saw something interesting on the way." Xander went on, twisting away from a casual slash sent back his way before he completed the turn and drove his rapier blade in a thrust for Gomez' heart.

"Oh?" Gomez asked as he slid down in the set, angling his head to one side as the blade stuck into the leather chair. He kept sliding under the chair, then kicked up with surprising strength and sent the desk flying into Xander's face.

The impact of the heavy desk threw him back, and Xander rolled with it rather than try and fight the momentum. He barely cleared the area before the hardwood desk slammed down into the spot he'd been.

"Yeah," he gritted out, throwing his blade up into a hard block, wincing as the slender rapier flexed deeply. "You ever hear of something called the Art of Movement?"

Gomez shook his head, stumbling back in surprise as Xander lashed out with a kick to his shin. The Addam's Patriarch barely twisted in time to avoid the blade strike coming at him and pinned Xander's sword with his own, both straining against the other as the two looked each other in the eyes from inches away.

"Dirty pool, lad." Gomez said, rubbing his shin before he grinned. "I like it."

"Ah Crap." Xander had time to mutter before Gomez reversed his pressure and shoved, sending Xander flying back across the room. He hit the ground in a roll, then sprinted with Gomez hot on his heels, planting his feet on the furniture as Gomez gleefully hacked behind him.

He pivoted, parrying a slash as the chair under him balanced on two legs, Gomez slashing at him unmercifully. Xander let the chair plant on four legs again, then jumped back into a flip that carried him over Gomez strike. When he planted his feet back on the floor, however, the Addams was waiting for him and with three lightning flicks of his blade, Xander was disarmed with cold steel to his throat.

"So what is this Art of movement, then?" Gomez asked lightly as they came to a halt.

Xander grinned, shaking his head. "Thought I had you for a second there, Sir. And they do this, actually. Just without swords."

"Defeats the point, doesn't it?" Gomez grinned, walking over to the overturned desk. "And you're a couple decades from getting me, lad. Don't forget it."

Xander shook his head, but dropped into the chair he'd used as a launch platform, "So you say. And they seem to enjoy just running over things… you know, benches, fences, buildings…"

"Really? That does sound like fun." Gomez grinned, rescuing his cigar box from under the desk. He drew one out, offering it to Xander. "Cigar lad?"

"No thanks, don't you know those things will kill you?" Xander asked with a grin.

"Nonsense." Gomez snorted, "Best thing for you, lad."

"I think that the American Cancer Society might argue that with you." Xander smirked.

Gomez rolled his eyes, lighting the cigar calmly. "Oh them. Young fools, that bunch. Oh, don't get me wrong lad… You chain smoke, you're asking for health problems. Course, you shovel food into your maw twenty four hours a day and you won't be much better off. Trust me lad, a cigar once in a while is good for you."

"Never really thought about it." Xander shrugged.

"Couple tips, though," Gomez went on, "never smoke American tobacco unless it's naturally grown. Cigarettes are for punks. And always have a glass of brandy at hand, it complements the flavor of the smoke."

Xander blinked, and was about to comment that Gomez didn't have a glass of brandy just then when Thing appeared with a decanter and poured one for him. Gomez smiled, smugly, and dipped the tip of the cigar in the drink before taking another puff.

Xander chuckled, "I'm not ready for that vice just yet, thank you though."

"As you will, lad." Gomez shrugged, dropping into the chair Xander had stabbed earlier and relaxing back with cigar in one hand, brandy in the other. "I don't think it'll be as interesting a holiday for you this time, lad."

Xander sighed, noting the serious shift in Gomez' voice. "Wednesday's pretty focused, isn't she?"

Gomez smiled slightly, a gleam in his eye and he looked over to Xander. "Good lad. Noticed that, did you? It's naught to do with you, she's dealing with some ancient history you might say."

Xander nodded, "If it's a problem, I can go back to Hogwarts for the Hols…"

"Nonsense." Gomez said sharply, "At least not unless you want to. You're fifteen now, lad, and I think you can be trusted to find things to amuse yourself. I just wanted to make certain that you understood, she isn't ignoring you because you did anything wrong."

Xander nodded slowly, "What is she worried about?"

"I think that's best for her to bring up, Alexander." Gomez said, "Just be patient, will you lad?"

Xander nodded with a wry grin, "No worries, sir, I'm not running screaming yet."

"Well, we'll have to see about that," Gomez grinned, "Can't have people thinking we Addams' have lost our touch, you know."

* * *

Harry Potter dropped painfully into the soft couch of the Gryffindor common room, his groan drawing a concerned glance from Hermione.

"Are you ok?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Just sore, I've been training and all that."

She nodded, "Have you worked out the egg thing yet?"

Harry glanced around, then reluctantly nodded. "Yeah. I got some help, but it's figured out."

"What is it then?" Hermione had to admit, she was curious.

Harry leaned forward and recited the poem the egg had sung, causing Hermione to stare with wide eyes.

"You know what it means, then?"

"Yeah, they're going to take something valuable from me and I have to get it back." Harry said, "I'm guessing from underwater, so the lake probably."

"Probably," Hermione confirmed. "You have a plan?"

"I've been looking around for some way to breath under water," Harry said, "but honestly it's going to be mostly off the cuff, they're not really going out of their way to give me much information, you know?"

Hermione scowled, but had to admit that he had a point. She sighed, then forced a grin, "Well, you should be right at home at least. You seem to prefer… 'Thinking on the fly'."

Harry rolled his eyes, leaning back on the couch, "I'd be right at home if I could just stay here and read a book that day."

"Well, at least you're still working." Hermione sighed. "If you need any help, just ask… and yes, I'll start looking up water related spells for you."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry said gratefully. "I'd be lost without you, you know that right?"

She smirked at him, "Harry, half the time you're lost WITH me. I do what I can, but I'm only human."

"Oi, I'd be insulted…" Harry griped, then sighed, "if it weren't, you know, true."

* * *

Wednesday looked up from her books, nodding silently to Xander as he walked in. He paused briefly, then shrugged and stepped in.

"So what's up?"

She sighed, straightening up and closing her book. "I am researching family history."

"You mind if I ask why?"

"Yes."

Xander nodded slowly, flinching slightly. "Alright, how about if I ask why you mind then?"

"Alexander," Wednesday said slowly, "Some things… are not for others."

"I'm 'others'?" He asked softly as he sat down across from her.

Wednesday just gazed evenly at him until he nodded slowly and sighed.

"Yeah. Alright." Xander said, "You'll let me know if I can help?"

She nodded, and Xander got to his feet and walked out.

She hesitated for a moment, then turned back to her work. A moment later her mother appeared behind her.

"That was harsh."

"This is a family concern, mother."

"And Alexander isn't family," Morticia said simply.

Wednesday shrugged slightly.

"I believe that you may be underestimating him, daughter." Morticia said simply as she turned and slid out of the room.

Wednesday frowned slightly, then shook her head and went back to work.

* * *

Paris in winter was a tad dreary, and chilly as hell by Xander's personal standards, but better than Scotland at least. He last a couple more days on the rock with the Addamses, then bolted for the city of lights.

He wasn't pleased about Wednesday's shift in attitude since the ball, honestly he didn't know what the hell was wrong with her. Fine, family business, but crap did she have to spend all her time on it? So now he was wandering around the City of Lights at Christmas, alone.

He was either doing something really wrong, or something really right. Xander honestly wasn't sure which.

Concorde Square was a large space to say the least, but it wasn't terribly hard to locate the large group of teens and young adults that were literally running up, over, under, and in some cases through ever obstacle in sight. Well, it wasn't hard to find them when they were there, of course. He had missed them the first time, and had taken another run through Le Rue just to browse. When he returned a couple hours later, Xander saw that the group was there along with David.

"Good afternoon," he had been greeted with a smile. "Good to see you again."

"Hey." Xander nodded, eyes on the people who were practicing around the area.

"Taking an interest I see," David smiled, "So do you know any French?"

"Some, not much." Xander admitted honestly.

His language skills tended more to Latin and Spanish at the moment, though Xander had been forced to pick up a few bits and bobs of other languages since he began attending Hogwarts. Not that school had much to do with it, but his extracurricular research demanded a certain lingual flexibility.

"Well, you're welcome here," David said with a shrug, "However we don't have a lot of English speakers at the moment, and no Americans at all. You're going to school in Scotland?"

Xander nodded.

"Well, British is close enough." David smiled, nodding to one of the group. "Croft! Come here for a moment."

A teenage girl broke from the group and jogged lightly over, wiping sweat quickly from her face before it could chill her as she slowed down. "What is it, David?"

"Would you mind taking a guest in hand?" He asked, "This one is interested, but doesn't speak much French."

She nodded slowly, eyeing Xander. "If you're sure."

"I know you just started, Lara, but you're progressing quickly." He assured her, "It'll help you along as well."

She nodded, "Very well."

"This is…"

"Xander." Xander spoke up, stepping forward with the little half bow he'd picked up from Narcissa.

Lara's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed as she reevaluated him. "Unusual accent."

"Cali boy," Xander grinned, "born and bred, but I school in Scotland."

"Ah. Private school?" She asked.

"Very."

"I'll leave you two to it, then." David said before taking his leave.

"Do you work out?"

"Constantly," Xander grinned, "Have an Uncle who was in the Navy, he started in on me a few years ago so I keep fit just to keep from being crippled when he gets ahold of me again."

"Navy? A Sailor?"

"Seal." Xander admitted with a shrug.

"Ah." Lara said, eyes widening again. "Well let's warm up, and I'll check you through some of the basic motions."

"Sounds like fun."

* * *

The Art of Motion, or Parkour as it was being called, was both exhilarating and terrifying. Xander was totally stunned that non-magical people had actually come up with a sport that made Quidditch seem SANE by comparison.

With Lara's help Xander managed to learn the basics over the run of a week or so, and thanks to his physical training he was able to keep up with her as she pushed herself to extreme's that would have made Harry balk on his broom. Xander wasn't quite as crazy and while he kept up with her, if there was a sane way to move and an insane way, it was a given that he would take the former while Lara took the latter.

The concept was simple enough, though the theory and the practical were worlds apart. The idea was to maintain momentum as much as possible while moving through obstacles, using that stored energy only as needed to get through to the next leg of movement.

Simple vaults and jumps were common, of course, but the landing was carefully taught even for the most basic of movements. Xander learned to keep on the balls of his feet, absorbing impact through his ankles before his heels could impact and drive force up through his legs. After that it all became about balance, knowing when to flex at the knees and when to bend forward into a roll to absorb energy.

As he trained alongside them, Xander saw some truly amazing leaps and feats, including casual jumps from heights in excess of twenty to twenty five feet. He was simply blown away by how easy they made it look, especially Lara who never seemed to miss a chance to practice her art.

He'd been worried that he was holding her back, such was her zeal for the training in fact, but she had brushed that worry off when he suggested that he could get along without her help.

"You'll learn, Xan," She said with an easy smile that belied the ferocity with which she pushed herself, "that sometimes we learn best through teaching. Also, when you're good enough, you'll be expected to show others how to do all of this. That's part of the ideals David and his friends are trying to show us, it's not just about running. It's about being better, better physically, and better mentally."

So he didn't suggest that again, and instead buckled down to try and work as hard as she did while he was there. He couldn't, of course, but he tried. A big part of it was the mindset, however, and that was slowing Xander down even more than the physical aspect.

It was hard to see a building and mentally size up all the ways you could climb it, picking out the fastest and most effective method and implementing it in just a few seconds at most. Still, though he couldn't do it, Xander was constantly blown away by those who could.

Some of the runners he was training with were deeply into flash moves, really just strutting and showing off, but Xander held his admiration for those who focused on speed and efficiency. The moves were often just as INSANE, but always had a purpose, and Xander couldn't help but hope to match their skill someday.

It wouldn't be happening anytime SOON, of course, but he was going to keep practicing on his own. By Christmas, Xander had decided that he was going to replace most of his fitness workout with Parkour running. Other than a little weight work, parkour had his entire workout covered and it could be done all at once in less time while working up another skillset that Xander really, REALLY thought was too damned cool.

Of course, by Christmas, Xander found that he wasn't as enthusiastic about anything as he normally would be. A couple days before he had been so thrown off, that even Lara who barely knew him, had called him on it.

* * *

"Alright, Xan, what's going on? You're going to get hurt if you keep going this way." Lara had confronted him, hands on her hips as he picked himself up off the ground from a flubbed Cat Vault that left him sprawled across the Paris cement.

He sighed, flopping over to his back on the cold ground, not noticing the temperature thanks to a discreet warming charm he'd used before arriving.

"Girl troubles." He admitted finally.

"Oh?" Lara smirked down at him, perched on a concrete barrier in a deep crouch that brought her knees up to her breasts as she rested on the balls of her feet. "You didn't mention a girlfriend."

"Not sure she is one." Xander said, "We had one real date, but we've been good friends for years now."

"And when was this date?"

"A little over a week ago."

"Ouch." Lara winced, "Suck that bad?"

"Hell no." Xander grinned, "We killed the dance floor, left everyone else gaping in shock. No, it was a great date I'm pretty sure of that."

"So what's the problem?"

"Wednesday is… scary focused sometimes," Xander said after a hesitation. "And right now, she's so not focused on me or anything to do with me. Wouldn't be so bad, I guess, but I'm staying with her and her folks for the Hols."

Lara winced again, "Uncomfortable I take it?"

"Not so much, her folks are weird but great all the same. They see it too, but know that it's not me. I just feel like we should be doing something more, you know?" Xander asked with a helpless shrug as he lay on the ground.

"Well, I don't know you all that well, or her at all, so I could be all wrong but it seems to me that if she wants space you should probably let her have some." Lara said with a shrug, "and if you can't, well maybe it's not the relationship you need right now."

Xander scowled, but then sighed, "Yeah. Probably right."

"Come on, get up, you've got more work to do."

* * *

It was the first year that Christmas with the Addams seemed almost as tense as back home, and Xander hated that in ways he couldn't understand. He was starting to question everything he did, and had done.

He probably should have skipped the ball entirely, he decided. Maybe asked Hermione instead, but try as he might he couldn't find anything wrong with that night. It was frustrating as hell, and he just didn't know what to do about it.

All of that meant that he spent less and less time with the Addams over the holidays, begging off to literally run through Paris or hang around La Rue. This wasn't something that went unnoticed by her hosts, but Gomez and Morticia were at a loss for possibly the first time when it came to their daughter. She had always been unique, of course, that was a proud Addams trait.

Her maturity had mirrored her mother's almost from the moment she could walk, which left the elder couple entirely unprepared for her actions now.

"She's growing up, Gomez darling." Tish sighed with an elegant shrug, "That isn't always a pretty thing."

"True, but I was hoping more for the blood dropping knives and drooling fangs kind of horror," Gomez replied with a shake of his head. "Our little Wednesday turning into an American Teenager is far more horrifying than I ever imagined."

Morticia shuddered, "Thankfully I do not believe she has gone quite that far yet. Still, she may be permanently damaging her relationship with Alexander."

"That would be a shame," Gomez frowned, "The boy has potential."

"Ah, mon coeur, I'm sure things will turn out for the best." Morticia sighed.

Gomez froze and shuddered, "Tish! That's French!"

* * *

Wednesday Addams was, at that moment, buried deep in a book that detailed many of the old targets and what had brought them to the attention of the Clan in the first place. Most, actually, had done nothing to the Clan either directly or otherwise. They merely shared certain traits with an item from long before, an item that had been used to enslave hundreds of thousands, including an entire family line of the Clan.

There were certain forms of magic that the Clan simply did NOT tolerate.

Unfortunately, beyond the obvious, these artifacts were well defended. The Goblet was one of the Ancient symbols of the British Monarchy, often mistake in legend for the Holy Grail. Such items were always protected with magical warding that bordered on fanatical. Circumventing such defenses was likely well beyond her current capability, but Wednesday knew that when the tournament was finished the Goblet would be returned to wherever it had been hidden for all these centuries and the opportunity would be lost.

There MUST be a way.

Gaining access to the Cup while it was still at Hogwarts would be relatively easy, however bypassing the warded defenses that were intended to prevent a foreign power from doing precisely what Wednesday wanted to do or, of course, steal it for themselves was a far different story.

It was infuriating, she quickly found, and worse than that it was one area where her immediate family had little skill with which to provide aid. Her parents, while formidable in their own right, were not experts on magical warding. Uncle Fester's answer was one she could already hear him saying. Explosives, Wednesday, lots and lots of explosives.

While that approach may work, however, it wasn't guaranteed and Wednesday suspected that the level of force required to overpower the wards would likely bring down a large chunk of the school onto children who had done nothing to warrant that level of destruction.

Grandmamma was a potions mistress, not a warding expert, and Itt had spent most of his time dabbling in non-magical intelligence work. If the device was protected by the latest technological systems he would be perfect, but ancient wards were something that had long since fallen out of favor in the Family.

It was so frustrating.

* * *

Christmas day came and went, and Xander found himself again roving through Paris with a band of what most people would probably call delinquents. He did enjoy it, however, though even as the end of the holidays came into sight he knew that he had a LONG way to go before he was proficient in the majority of the basic moves used in Parkour.

What was most important, however, was that it was great exercise and a lot of fun. He also had to confess to already be thinking about what he could do at Hogwarts with Parkour and the moving staircases.

He was especially thankful for Lara's patience with him, because despite what she said he felt like he was holding her back in their runs. She just blew past him without trying, and it kinda made him feel like dueling Harry only here he couldn't figure out how to cheat.

' How exactly do you palm an ace when your opponent is gravity anyway? ' Xander thought with a grin as he thief vaulted over a stone wall and landed running on the other side, eyes on Lara as the slightly older girl led the pack.

That proved to be a mistake, since today Lara was wearing much less clothing than normal and his focus on her backside proved his undoing when he ran into another wall, and proceeded to hook his toes in the middle of his attempt at a cat vault, which pitched him face first into the ground in a painful sprawl that left those coming behind him laughing as they checked to make sure he hadn't broken anything.

"Je suis correcte." He groaned, rolling over and waving them off. "Merci."

The grinning faces retreated as Xander got back to his feet and pushed the image of Lara's backside from his mind before he started running again.

* * *

Harry sighed as he grabbed a towel and dried the sweat from his face. His workouts were going well, and life in Hogwarts was decent, but the tri wizard stuff was worrying him.

' What is my most prized possession? ' He wondered, nerves about the upcoming task riding high. He didn't know what to think about the mermish song, but he knew that he didn't like the sound of it. In the normal world no one would just steal something and not give it back for this sort of thing, but in the normal world he couldn't be forced to compete in the first place now could he?

He didn't own much, in fact he owned so little that taking something of his was almost a joke. A joke until he thought about Hedwig, or his Mom's Coven journal, his dad's map… his family cloak. He owned so few things that almost everything he did have held major significance to him and Harry didn't want to lose any of them.

He tossed the towel aside and walked over to the pedestal the room had provided, flipping the book inside open to the Bubble head charm and running through the motions again. He had got together with Hermione, Neville, and oddly enough Dobby to maximize his chances on any sort of water task.

Dobby had stolen some gillyweed, from Snape Harry could only presume though he wasn't asking, on Neville's suggestion while Harry and Hermione researched water based magic. There were very few offensive spells that worked underwater, Harry now knew, so he hoped there wouldn't be too much fighting involved in whatever it was.

That wasn't to say that there were none, a few of the more common dueling spells functioned after a fashion, but they tended to react oddly. You didn't use electrical based attacks, for one thing, particularly in salt water. A bit obvious, Harry supposed, but the heads-up in the texts was appreciated all the same.

Similarly ice and cold based spells were dangerous, while fire based spells were mostly ineffective. That actually affected more spells than he had realized before he started researching things. Many more spells tapped the fire element than he would have believed, since the entire element was weak under water not just straight up flames.

Fiendfyre was an exception, he had also learned, though Harry had no intention of using that particular dark spell. He wasn't sure how or why, but it was noted to burn quite explosively when cast under water. Ironically it was noted that Fiendfyre was actually HARDER to control under water than in open air.

Magic was weird.

Still, he had a decent selection of spells that should serve him while he was underwater.

Now if only he could figure out how to SWIM.

* * *

Sirius Black was bored.

This was not a state of mind conducive to the well-being of those around him, as a general rule, however at the moment he was too bored to bother with pranks and that kinda scared him.

He'd finished the work on the motorbike a while back, kept in touch with Cissy, Andy, and Harry, even kept up an on again off again relationship with Amelia, though he was occasionally insulted that the silly bint thought he was quite so dense as she apparently did.

Birth control spells, undetectable ones, were something every scion of the Black Family learned at an early age. Trapping people into marriages was something that happened to other families, not to the Blacks.

Still, she was a minx in the sack and it was funny as hell to watch as she kept trying to figure out why she wasn't pregnant yet. He did have to wonder, idly, what her game was. He doubted Cissy would have sent her, that wasn't his cousin's style. More likely Narcissa would have presented him with a list of potential matches and a schedule to fill in the blanks with however many names he happened to choose.

No, this was something else. A minor family, maybe, Sirius supposed or perhaps a muggle-born looking to marry up. It didn't really matter, he wasn't going to bend over for any upstart who thought they could trick a child out of him.

Still, that left him where he was. Bored.

He hoped for the summer to come quicker, though he wasn't sure how he would be able to manage a visit with Harry. He had to somehow, though.

' Cissy got him out of the country once, ' He thought, though he had chills on just how easily that had been accomplished. Honestly, that boy trusted people too easily. To actually leave the COUNTRY in the company of two Malfoys and an American Slytherin?

It was like all the worst qualities of Lily, and her eternal open honesty and trust, and James with all his reckless bravado wrapped into one.

Sirius sighed, shaking his head as he wondered what he was going to do with his Godson.

Bored, Bored, Bored.

* * *

The Holidays swept by, even with the tensions at the 'Chateau' the Addamses had been experiencing, and shortly it was time for them to end their 'vacation' and return whence they came. Xander bade a pretty fond farewell to his running group, even scoring a hug and a peck on the cheek from Lara, while the Addams cleared out the old fort in efficient fashion.

And, thus, on the last day before school started up again, Xander and Wednesday found themselves seated back on the Express and heading north to Scotland.


	97. Chapter 97

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Harry was only mildly surprised to find the Room occupied when he let himself in that night for training. He watched as Xander went through his own training regimen, noting that he had added some pretty extreme motions to it all.

"Ouch," He muttered, shaking his head when one of those same motions turned into a sprawl that left Xander skidding across the floor. "That had to hurt."

Xander groaned from the ground, rolling over to his back. "You have no idea."

Harry walked over and looked down, "Do I even want to know what you were doing there?"

"Probably not."

Harry extended and hand and Xander accepted, so he pulled him to his feet. Xander brushed himself off and retrieved his wand from where he'd dropped it before turning back. "You have a good holiday man?"

Harry shrugged, "Wasn't horrible. Got some work done, had some fun."

"Cool. Got something for you," Xander said, glancing around until he found what he was looking. He fetched a book from the corner of the room, "Guessed you'd be by tonight."

Harry snorted, "You mean you've been spying on me with your map, right?"

Xander shrugged, tossing the book across the room to Harry. "Same diff."

Harry caught it easily, rolling his eyes. "Right. A book? You get me and Mione mixed up?"

"Check it out."

Harry did, and his eyebrows went up. "Broomstick charms? You can make your own?"

"Someone has to make the things, right? Figured you might like to tinker." Xander shrugged.

"Thanks." Harry nodded slowly, "I appreciate it."

"No problem," Xander told him, nodding to where Harry's wand was holstered. "Up for a spar?"

Harry grinned, "You bet."

They both pulled their wands, grinning wide.

* * *

The day of the second task came shortly after school started to swing back into, a grey skied morning that chilled Xander to the bone as he shuffled out with everyone else to the new stands setup by the lake.

"Whose stupid idea is this anyway?" He grumbled, casting a warming charm on himself as he took a seat beside Wednesday.

"I assume the same fools who organized the first challenge." Wednesday replied.

Xander did an exaggerated double take, "Wait, are you talking to me again?"

She glared at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"Ooh, a glare too." He sighed happily, "It's almost like we're friends again."

She glared more openly at him, but he didn't look away. Finally, for the first time since he met her, Wednesday was the one who backed off first. She looked away, focusing back on the lake, and pointedly didn't look back at him.

"We're still friends, Alexander."

"You ignored me all Christmas, Wens." Xander said quietly, "You won't tell me why, which I can respect, really. But I think you've taken the whole thing too far."

"It is important to me, Alexander." She said, staring straight ahead. "I don't expect you to understand."

He laughed humorlessly, "I get important, Wens. You know what I find important? Willow. Herms. You."

She was silent as they watched the Champions gather by the edge of the lake, getting the last minute low down from the organizers.

Finally she spoke up, "You're important too, Alexander. I just…"

"Consider this a priority." He offered up.

She nodded slowly.

"I get that. Look, I'm not asking you to give up whatever it is, I'm not asking you to pick between me and whatever is it. Just don't cut me out," He softly pleaded, "You and Herms are the only two people keeping me from going nuts out here."

She smiled slightly, looking back at him for the first time. "I wish I could say we had done a better job."

Xander looked at her, then laughed.

"Alright," He said finally, "Friends?"

She nodded, "Friends."

"And you'll ask me for help if you need it?" He pressed, looking at her pointedly.

Wednesday sighed, then nodded. "Very well."

"Excellent. Back in the library this afternoon?"

"Of course."

"Cool."

They sat in silence again, listening as the rules for the challenge were announced, and then watched as the champions were set off into the lake. Xander stared after the last one had gone in, waited several minutes, and then blinked.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" He muttered. "Is this it?"

He and the rest of the crowd stared at the ripples in the water as more and more time went by.

"Oh this is just idiotic." Xander complained again after ten minutes, "Are we actually sitting here and staring at an empty lake?"

"Apparently so."

"Worst. Spectator Sport. Ever." Xander muttered in annoyance.

The rest of the afternoon was exactly the same, leaving Xander to shift and fidget in place as he got more and more bored.

When the first person finally broke the surface again Xander almost jumped out of his seat, leaning forward to see. He blinked in surprise and sat back with a frown when it turned out to be Fleur, without her hostage.

"Wonder what the story is there?" He asked rhetorically.

"She does look somewhat bedraggled." Wednesday added.

Xander nodded, then they both settled back to wait.

After another interminably long wait they saw Cedric appear, with Cho Chang in tow, and then Viktor followed quickly. Xander's eyes widened in shock when he helped Hermione out of the water.

"What the fuck was she doing down there?" He cursed, leaning forward.

"He was her escort to the Ball." Wednesday answered.

"One date and she's his most valuable treasure?" Xander muttered, "If he works that fast I'm getting me a pair of gloves this time."

Wednesday slapped his shoulder, "Grow up. She hardly needs you acting like some brain dead oaf shadowing her every step."

"Hey, I'm just saying, doesn't this seem a little fast for you?"

Wednesday shrugged, "Apparently they simply chose their dates as hostages."

Xander nodded, then leaned forward again as there was more motion at the lake. A blond girl surfaced, followed by Harry and Ron.

Xander blinked. "Uh… Is Harry cheating on Parvati with the blond girl? She seems a little young."

Fleur ran over, grabbing the girl in a hug.

Xander looked at Wednesday, who looked back.

"Gee… You think Harry is hiding something from us?" Xander asked with a halfway grin. "Some deep dark secret, maybe? You know, stashed WAY in the back of his closet?"

She rolled her eyes in response, standing up. "Now that this farce is complete, I have some work to do."

Xander nodded, "Yeah I guess. I've got some things to do as well."

"Leave Hermione alone."

"No problem."

"Leave Viktor alone as well." She growled, "I have no time to deal with the drama you'd stir up."

"I'm not gonna bother Viktor either, unless he steps out of line."

"Do I want to know?"

"Are you kidding?" Xander smirked, "I have GOT to mess with Harry. It's practically a duty."

Wednesday glanced at him, then shrugged, "Whatever."

* * *

"Leave me alone! I am not a pouf!" Harry snapped.

"Hey, just cause you and Ron have a special relationship is nothing to be ashamed of." Xander smirked.

"Stop saying that!"

"What am I supposed to think? Even Fleur had a girl to rescue," Xander smirked.

"She's her sister!"

"That does seem a little close, even for purebloods," Xander admitted, then shrugged, "Hey but who am I to judge? So she likes blonds, you like redheads… nothing wrong with that."

Harry drew his wand, waving it threateningly, "I'm warning you, cut that crap out!"

"It does explain why you're so good with the swish and flick motion in charms…" Xander went on thoughtfully.

"Oh that's it! Tarantegella!" Harry snapped, slashing his wand out at Xander.

Xander hit the floor, rolling and laughing as he drew his own wand and snapped back a stunner in response. Harry dodged to the left, casting a chain of stunners in response.

Xander had to scramble, getting to his feet and barely staying one step ahead of the blasts as he ran across the room. He planted his foot on the wall, and cat walked along the surface before crossing the corner and kicking off.

It would have been cool as hell if he hadn't slipped in the process and went down in a sprawl that had him seeing stars just before a stunner put him out.

A few minutes later he woke up to Harry standing over him, glaring down at him. "You better be done."

Xander groaned, sitting up. "Depends. You didn't, you know, molest me while I was out, right?"

Harry slugged him.

* * *

Xander rubbed his jaw as he sat down against the wall, tossing a bottle of water to Harry as he sat down beside him.

"Nice right cross." Xander chuckled.

"You're a git, you know that, right?"

"Harry, if you think I'm bad just think of what Malfoy will do if this occurs to him."

Harry groaned, "Oh bloody hell. You're not going to set him on me are you?"

"Not me, man." Xander smirked, "but if I were him I couldn't help but play this one up."

The Boy Who Lived sighed, slumping against the wall. "Every damn year things get worse and worse. I'd have been better off with the Dursleys."

"That's saying something I guess." Xander winced, "Look, you know this tri wiz crap is going to get worse, right?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. I know, but what can I do about it?"

"For starters, take this." Xander said, handing over his carbon black wand.

Harry stared at it, confused, "Your wand? Why?"

"My left hand." Xander said with a smile. "It's made from parts of the Basilisk, pretty crappy for charms and stuff, but it kicks all kinds of ass with curses."

Harry accepted it hesitantly, "But it's yours? I mean, it didn't choose me…"

"You don't pay attention to much do you?" Xander asked wryly. "Relax, this is one of mine, not Ollivander's. He makes better wands, but mine have some advantages. They don't conflict with your chosen wand, so you can use both at the same time. You're already fighting me to a dead heat with one hand, even with me reading your mind…"

"You're what!?"

"I told you I've been cheating my arse off, dude." Xander laughed. "You don't have much in the way of shields, so you broadcast every move when you're in the zone. Just a tip, Occlumency dude. You don't want to tangle with someone who can do what I do in a real fight."

Harry looked down at the wand in his hand, then shook his head. "How do you do all this?"

"What?"

"You make wands, read minds, hell you made your own Marauder's map! How do you do all that?" Harry asked, exasperated.

Xander sat quietly for a long moment, then finally shrugged, "How do you NOT?"

"What?"

"Harry, Your mom helped write the Grimoire. Your dad, he helped design and craft the map AND became an Animagus by fourth year. Hell, Lord Mold in his Shorts crafted that damned diary of his sometime before sixth year best we can tell." Xander said, waving his hand idly. "Hell, the twins have invented more crap than all those people put together, some of it pretty brill. Me? I barely rank by those standards, mate. I know you're smarter than me, I've seen your grades in the classes you actually try in."

"Hey! I try!"

"You signed up for Divination, dude." Xander rolled his eyes, "How's that working for you?"

Harry looked down.

"Yeah. Case and rest, mate." Xander shrugged, "My point is that… Damn it, Harry, it's Magic! It's not like you're being asked to do Algebra, dude! This stuff is like my every childhood dream come true! You ask me how I can do all this, I ask you… how can you NOT?"

Harry was silent for a long time, shaking his head. He finally mumbled something Xander couldn't quite hear, prompting him to look over questioningly.

"What was that?"

"I said how am I supposed to do anything?" Harry complained, his voice bitter. "I'm stuck with the Dursleys most of the summer, and every year some bloody arsehole tries to kill me!"

Harry pushed himself up, eyes blazing as he paced the room. "You know what, I'd LOVE to spend my summers doing whatever it is you do, but I don't get to do that! My life sucks so hard it blows, alright?"

Xander held up his hands in defense, "Hey, you asked man. But be honest, Harry, that's not the whole story either."

"I don't know what you're yacking about."

"Harry, you barely try at… ANYTHING. You get top marks in Defense and Transfiguration, right? But Hermione bitches all the time about how she has to fight you and Ron to get you to do your homework." Xander said, "Hell, you're somehow passing Potions, which is a miracle worthy of a bloody saint… yet again, Hermione says you barely do your homework. The rest of us? We brew all the bloody time, either for fun or for work, but we brew."

"What are you getting at?" Harry growled.

"I'm saying that you're bloody smart, Harry. Maybe Hermione smart, maybe not, but you're up there." Xander growled in return, "If you weren't, you'd be flunking out of damn near every class. So what I'm getting at goes back to the original question… You ask how I can do all this, and I ask how can you NOT?"

"I already answered that." Harry growled defensively.

"No, not completely. You have some things messing with you for sure," Xander said, "But you could still do more if you even bothered to half try. You think I'm pulling off great stuff or something, but Harry, you don't even bother to try for yourself. Hell, unless someone literally has a wand to your head you don't bother to exert yourself for anything."

Harry was silent, turning away from him.

"I don't know why, I don't really care to be honest." Xander shrugged, "We're mates, but not close enough for me to worry about why you do what you do. I'm just going to point it out to you, what you do about it is your business, Harry."

"You think you're so damn smart. Have everything figured out, don't you?"

"Me? I'm a dunce." Xander shrugged, "I just happen to be creative, and enjoy hanging out with girls who are WAY smarter than I am. But you know what? I know a thing or two about slacking off. Until I came here, I never took anything seriously. My best bud, his name is Jessie… he and I were dedicated underachievers together, and our best gal pal… Willow, she was our budding genius who kept us from being total losers. My Hermione, you could say. Maybe my Ron too."

Xander got up, wincing as he felt the bruises he'd earned sparring with Harry flare slightly. "Then I came to Hogwarts and everything changed for me."

"Well bully for you."

"Yeah, it is." Xander smiled, "I'm liking my life right now. Things are going my way, first time ever. But you know what? That didn't start to happen until the first thing went right in my life… and that was MAGIC, Harry."

Xander paused, then shook his head, "No. You know what, Willow was the first thing that went right in my life. Best bud, period. But it was magic that made me want to push myself FOR myself. I guess I just can't understand how come you don't love magic the same way… it's… it's inconceivable to me."

"I DO love magic, it's just…" Harry shook his head, "Damn it, I don't know."

Xander sighed, "I suggest you work that out, but you know in the meantime, you have bigger problems, right?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. The Tri Wiz."

Xander snorted, "Not that joke. Whoever put you IN the tri wiz. Look, Harry, let's be real ok? In the tournament you're probably safer than ever. It's designed by people who don't really want you dead… whoever put your name in, though? I don't think we can say the same."

Harry slumped, "Yeah. I know."

"Alright then, we have some work to do." Xander nodded to the second wand in Harry's hand, "Since you actually killed the snake that gave that puppy its core, it's yours. Best wand I made yet, for curses anyway. Use it as a Main Gauche, your Ollivander wand is your main tool… but this one gives you a sneaky little edge to slide into someone's ribs when they're not expecting it."

"I don't want to kill anyone!"

"Yeah, well, dude… other people can't say the same about you." Xander replied, "So I guess the question is… you feel like going quietly into the cold dark night?"

Harry sighed, then shook his head.

"Alright. Let's go back to basics… left handed wand motions," Xander suggested, "I find it's better if you don't even TRY charms or transfigurations, too complicated… unless you're lucky enough to be ambidextrous?"

"No."

"Alright, curses then. Lucky for both of us, those mostly use straight slashing motions." Xander said, "Now it took me a few weeks to get it down, but I suspect you'll be faster."

Harry nodded, hefting the unfamiliar wand in his left hand with uncertain motions. It felt different from his wand, lighter but with less flexibility. He lined up on the target range they used in the Room and snapped a curse out.

His aim was atrocious, but Harry almost jumped out of his skin when the stinging hex practically incinerated the target.

"Bloody Hell!"

"Yeah, I blew up a car my first time." Xander said, "Literally. Blew it up. Then over. Then back down again. I think Sirius pissed his pants."

Harry snorted, looking over at him, "You can't be serious."

"No, I'm not. Do I look like someone who'd piss their pants?"

Harry tried for a moment to respond to that, but gave up quickly. There were some things he just didn't want to delve into, and this was certainly one of them.

"Alright, let's do that again. Work on your aim, ok?"

"Right." Harry nodded, setting his jaw.

If nothing else, Xander's wand would give him an advantage over someone who was expecting him to, you know, obey the known rules of the wizarding world and all.

Xander was right about another thing too.

He had been slacking since he got to Hogwarts. Technically he'd known that for a long time, but Xander had just put something into perspective for him.

At the Dursleys, Harry had worked like a slave. There was no doubt there, but he'd been working for someone else's edification. He'd never done anything for himself, or even for his friends, without a wand to his head.

He hadn't thought about why until just then either.

His whole life had been someone telling him what to do, what not to do. Punishing him for breaking nonexistent rules. When that stopped, Harry realized that he'd become more than a little lost in the hedonistic pleasure of just not doing ANYTHING if he could help it. He wasn't afraid of hard work, but he'd never really realized consciously that most people were rewarded for hard work.

To him it was just something he had to do while someone else slacked off their responsibilities.

Xander, though, Xander was showing him the flip side of that. He was working hard, but Harry could SEE how he was being rewarded for it. Both in money and accomplishment.

All his life, Harry just wanted to not be noticed.

Not be noticed by Dudley, by Vernon, by Petunia. Not be noticed by his teachers, for fear that they'd tell his 'family'. He hadn't had any of the dreams growing up that Xander talked about, the super hero fantasies… he only knew about superheroes because Dudley left his comics scattered all over the house.

It had taken him almost four years to realize it, but Harry finally did realize something important.

He wasn't living under their thumb any longer.

He could work for himself. For his friends.

And maybe one day, just maybe, he could work for his family.

Maybe that was more important than not being noticed.


	98. Chapter 98

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Padma Patil watched from one corner of the Ravenclaw common room as Wednesday Addams went about her reading. The Addams scion was alone, as was her wont, and seemed deeply involved in the book she was reading. Padma bit her lip nervously, she'd been trying to work up the nerve to approach Wednesday since they had returned from holidays.

At the Yule ball, Addams and Harris had intervened for her and her sister, saving them from a humiliating night. Parv had shrugged it off, but she was like that. Padma found herself taking the favor a bit more seriously, especially since Harris had told her that Wednesday actually seemed to like her at least a bit.

She honestly hadn't believed that Wednesday LIKED anyone, except maybe Harris and Granger. For a lot of reasons she wanted to see if it were true. Her father would consider disowning her if she let a chance to establish friendly contact with a clan as powerful as the Addams, for one, but more importantly she was curious, and really did owe the girl one.

She took a sharp breath and got up, walking stiffly across the room to where Addams was seated. Wednesday didn't look up as she arrived, merely flipped a page as she continued to read.

"So, you finally found some of your sister's courage and decided to come over."

Padma swallowed hard, but nodded. "I… I wanted to thank you for what you did at the Yule ball."

"No, you came over because you wanted to speak with me." Wednesday said, finally looking up. "The thing I am not certain of, is what you wished to speak with me about."

Padma slumped a little, "Nothing exactly. I just… wanted to be on the inside."

"Inside of what?"

Padma blinked, "You know."

"I do not." Wednesday countered calmly. "Enlighten me."

"You and Harris, Granger, a few others… I want to join your group."

Wednesday blinked.

* * *

"Are you researching Flat Footed Bell Ringers?"

Xander blinked, looking up at the blond peering over at him. "Uh… no?"

"Pity. You must be working out an Arithmancy formula for a new spell, then." Luna said as she sat down.

"Uh… yeah." He mumbled, mind still trying to catch up to her first comment.

"What kind of spell is it?" She asked brightly, smiling at him.

He was somewhat entranced by the blond, Xander had to admit. She wasn't precisely pretty, nor cute, but her expressions combined with the distinctive build of her face was… Xander shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"The spell, what type is it?" She asked, glancing at the pages upside down. "Oh! Very elegant equations. You do nice work."

"I did the rough stuff, Wednesday and Hermione polished it." Xander corrected mildly, "And it's a shield spell."

"Hmmmm…." She hummed, off tune as she continued to read the numbers upside down. "Very complex for a shielding spell. Are those conjuration equations?"

"Ok, I'm impressed." Xander admitted, passing her the papers, "And yes they are. What else do you see?"

"Aside from the conjuration equations? I see the core of the Protego spell," She said, "But that's not a surprise. My mother developed that one to replace the slower Protegia incantation."

"You're mother's a crafter?"

"She was. Once." Luna said, a hint of emotion coloring her voice. "She's dead now."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Why? Did you kill her?" Luna asked, looking at him with eyes whose dreamy shadows were belied by the speed and sharpness of her question.

"I? Wha… no!"

"Then you have nothing to apologize for." Luna smiled.

"Uh. Right."

Luna looked back down to the equations and frowned as she focused deeply. "There is an elemental signature in here, I do not recognize it."

"Titanium." Xander answered, his tone curious. "It's a very hard metal."

She nodded, "I can read that in the numbers. Brittle, however."

"That's what makes it perfect."

"I don't understand." Luna blinked, "It will shatter under a significant impact. How is that good for a shield?"

"That would be telling," Xander took the papers back, smiling. "I am impressed. I have a hard time reading those elements, and I placed them there."

Luna pouted, "I can usually tell everything about a spell from reading its equation. This one is much harder to read."

"That's not by design, it's because you don't understand the elements in combination." Xander admitted candidly. "Still, you've done better than I would have believed."

She shrugged, still pouting, "Thanks I suppose."

Xander smiled, "Now I just have to figure out why I can't cast it."

Luna blinked, "Oh, that's because you're too close. You think you know what you designed, but you don't."

Xander stared for a long moment, "Huh?"

* * *

The concept was fascinating.

It was also ludicrous, in her opinion, but fascinating nonetheless. Wednesday eyed the dusky skinned girl who was nervously sitting across from her with some amusement.

"You actually believe that Alexander, myself, Hermione, and… who? Potter?" She smirked, "Are some sort of elite cabal within Hogwarts."

"I know you are." Padma returned with only a hint of her nerves entering her voice. "Though I wouldn't say Potter was a part of it exactly. Certainly not entirely on the inside, from what I can tell."

Wednesday cocked an eyebrow at the girl, "Convince me."

Padma took a breath, "First year, nothing much happened. You, Harris, and Granger networked somewhat. Mostly Granger and Harris. Granger's actions were obvious, she aligned with Potter and that put her well into the upper tiers of Gryffindor. Harris was harder to track, partly because Slytherin is so closed up, partly because his actions are more subtle. I do know that by the start of second year, Harris commanded a degree of loyalty in his house second only to Malfoy."

Wednesday maintained a calm expression, giving no hint of the surprise she felt. While she was aware that Xander had exerted some degree of control within his house, she wasn't aware that it was quite so pronounced. She was also relatively certain that it was largely unintended, though that wasn't specifically relevant at this time.

"Second year," Padma ticked off her fingers, "Harris continued to extend his influence in Slytherin while Granger supported Harry's position in Gryffindor. When the attacks extended to Hermione, you and Alexander teamed up with Harry and Ronald to handle the problem."

Wednesday shrugged, "Interesting conclusions."

Padma shot her a glance that held entirely more attitude than Wednesday expected from the other girl. Despite the absurdity of her conclusions, Wednesday was becoming amused by the story.

"Fine. Third year." Padma muttered, ticking off another finger. "Once again, between slowly extending influence and responding to the immediate crisis, your little group attained a level of quiet infamy that's actually mind boggling for those of us who can glimpse the extent of it."

"You've told me what Hermione and Alexander bring to this… cabal," Wednesday said with an amused air, "However you haven't mentioned myself."

Padma frowned, "That because you were the hardest one to figure out. Aside from scaring the hell out of your fellow Ravenclaws, you didn't seem to be doing anything. Not until this year."

Wednesday raised a single eyebrow, not genuinely curious. "Oh? Do tell."

"With one move, you unseated Cho Chang's power clique and established that fear is power." Padma replied, "when Harris followed it up with the heart spiked to the door just before Cho and Marietta opened it from the inside, you proved that you actually control Ravenclaw."

Wednesday sat back, for the moment forgetting about her own work, and slowly examined the teen across from her. She couldn't fault Padma's conclusions, nor the path she took to reach them. It was hardly apparent, from the outside, that each action taken had been one of enlightened self-interest and not some far reaching plan.

The analysis of the effect was, indeed, flawless, Wednesday concluded after a moment's thought. By largely unintentional actions, she and her two friends had established control over better than fifty percent of the school.

Of course, the analysis of the intentions behind the actions was flawed of course. They had no intentions of exercising such control except as needed to preserve a certain margin of decorum. After all, why would any of them actually CARE what some school children did? Especially since two thirds of the supposed Cabal were unlikely to remain in Europe past seventh year?

"There is one flaw in your analysis, Miss Patil." Wednesday said finally.

"Oh?" Padma looked confused, and more than a little apprehensive.

"Indeed. You've made a fatal assumption," Wednesday continued, "You've assumed that Myself, Alexander, and Hermione actually have USE for the children in this school. Speaking for myself, I do not."

Padma flinched, "but… why then?"

"Alexander is a genuinely good and caring person," Wednesday shrugged, "And despite this flaw, he's proven extremely successful in his life within the magical world. Hermione, of all of us, is the only one who fits your analysis, though she would furiously deny any part of some all reaching Cabal as you describe it. Her personal sense of justice would consider it… distasteful, at the very least."

Padma blinked, trying to understand what Wednesday was saying.

"However I do compliment you on your analysis of the effect, if not the intent." Wednesday said after some thought. "You have brought a serious issue to my attention, one that I had not considered."

"I have?"

"Indeed." Wednesday confirmed, "If you can piece together this little conspiracy theory, supporting it as you have with the limited information available to a student… then others have almost certain done so as well."

Wednesday was silent a long moment, considering the implications of that statement.

"In fact, given that you are entirely correct about the EFFECT of our actions, if not the intent behind them, I will have to give serious thought to how others are likely to perceive and react to us in the future. For this, I do thank you."

Padma frowned, her attention focused inwardly for a long time. Long enough that Wednesday returned to her book while she waited for the teen to assemble her thoughts. A few minutes turned into a half hour, then was reaching for three quarters of an hour before Padma spoke again.

"I still want in, if you'll have me."

Wednesday looked up, surprised though she didn't show it. "I believe I informed you that there was nothing to be 'in'."

"No, you said that there was no INTENT to create your cabal. However, you have it." Padma corrected, "Why leave it to waste?"

Indeed. Wednesday pursed her lips, considering that statement, then sat back and steepled her fingers.

"And if you were to be permitted to join… what do you bring to the table?" She asked with a thin smile.

Padma swallowed, "Access to magics not taught at Hogwarts, or even in Europe any longer. I have my family grimoires, and aside from certain spells reserved specifically for family members, I am willing to share in exchange for equal consideration."

Wednesday dipped her head, "An impressive offer, Miss Patil. I will… communicate your request to Alexander and Hermione."

"Thank you, Miss Addams, for your time and patience."

* * *

Luna had left Xander in somewhat of a daze, he had to admit. When she left the library, he tried to keep working for a while, but finally gave it up and decided that it was time for a bit of a work out instead.

Sometimes, he'd found, the only way to settle his mind was to exhaust his body. He didn't feel like meeting up with Harry just then, however, so the Room was out. He could see that Harry was there just by checking the map, instead he decided to have a little fun.

Normally moving from the ground floor of Hogwarts to the top, and back again, was a significant task to say the least. It also too upwards of a half hour, if the moving staircases were feeling particularly kind.

Xander started from the Library, which was situated on the ground floor, and sprinted up the first set of stairs before it could react to his presence. He cleared it in a few seconds, barely planting a foot on the first floor balcony it led to before he raced up the second.

The stairs shifted under him before he made it up halfway, causing Xander to smirk. He planted a foot on the rail and vaulted clear off the stairway, hooking the second floor balcony with his fingers. He swung under the platform, purposely pushing his muscles into the motion, then used the back swing to lever himself up to the platform.

He took a moment there, grinning like a madman, and caught his breath. Then he was off again, bolting up toward the third floor.

This time the stairwell didn't move, and Xander had a bizarre sensation that he had managed to SHOCK Hogwarts herself into inaction. The very idea drove him on as he rounded the bend and raced up the fourth stairwell. Again, there was no motion as he reached the top of this particular set of stairs and came to a halt near the hall that would lead to the Astronomy tower.

Four floors would be enough, he decided. He only needed to set a slow burn to his muscles, not massive exhaustion. He stood there for a moment, eyes surveying the distances. Just over 50 feet to the ground floor, since this particular stairwell didn't lead to the dungeons. Enough of a fall to put him in the hospital wing for a while, possibly kill him despite the supernatural toughness that came with a full magical core.

Probably not, though. If he fell, he'd most likely be found with shattered bones in his legs. Xander's knowledge of such injuries was limited, and he wouldn't mind keeping it that way, but worst case for that would be having any irreparable bones vanished so that they could be regrown with Skele-gro.

Not a pleasant thought, but not enough to scare him into inaction either.

"Just do it." He whispered, suddenly going from stop to full sprint without warning.

Xander cat vaulted the first rail, out into space above the fifty floor drop, bringing his feet forward as he began to drop, just in time to land on the balls of his feet and roll into a third floor hall.

Again, Xander felt that same shudder of shock run through him and he wondered if maybe the Castle WAS paying attention to his actions.

He ran back toward the balcony, and was surprised to see that the staircase was moving to intercept him this time, positioning itself so it would be beneath him when he jumped. Xander smirked, skidding for a moment, then cross vaulted over the rail and just dropped.

He freefell for only a few seconds, caught the edge of the balcony below, and swung from the second floor to a free drop the last dozen feet to the first, rolling to the middle of the stairwell and coming to his feet.

Xander grinned up, "You'll have to do better than that, next time. Good workout."

With that parting shot, he turned and jogged easily toward the Slytherin dungeons.

* * *

Harry was tired from the workout he had inflicted on himself when he finally left the Room of Requirements for the night. He had to admit, Xander's left hand wand was impressive, though only for combat. Aggressive combat, specifically. It wasn't much for creativity, not even in fighting, however.

The wand was powerful for violent, ugly curses but held a lot less juice for anything else. Not really something he wanted to carry, if Harry were to be honest with himself, however as long as he was being honest he supposed he had to admit that it could very well be what he needed.

Keeping Xander's few warnings in mind, he hid the wand away when he got to his room. Unlike Xander, Harry wasn't licensed to carry a pair of wands and there were more than a few people who'd like to get him in trouble, he had no doubt. So as soon as he got back to his room, Harry stashed it in his trunk, wrapped in his invisibility cloak, and he locked everything up.

After that it was homework time, and he found Hermione and Ron in the common room pouring over the day's assignments.

Well, Hermione was of course. Ron was half-heartedly pecking at the parchment, as if hoping that his quill would do the work for him.

"Hey guys."

"You're late, Harry." Hermione frowned at him.

"Yeah, mate. You left me alone with HER…" Ron rolled his eyes.

"Just what is THAT supposed to mean?"

"Uh…" Ron swallowed, knowing full well that he was already on thin ice with Hermione for reasons he wasn't entirely clear on. "Nothing, just that… well… I mean…"

"He means that you're a bit scary when you Study, Hermione." Harry smiled easily, dropping into a seat.

"Yeah, that."

She huffed, "Well I wouldn't be if you two would just do your work on time."

Ron started to get his back up, but Harry nodded in agreement. "You're right."

"I am?"

"She IS?"

Harry nodded, sighing as he opened his potions book. "Yeah. She is, and you are."

They both eyed him warily, as if trying to judge whether he was under the influence of… well, something. Possibly Polyjuice, judging from Hermione's expression. Harry suppressed the urge to flinch. Had he really been that bad?

"Look," he sighed, "I just have to face facts. Someone is trying to do me in, right?"

Ron scowled, but nodded. "Too right. What's that got to do with homework?"

"Honestly!" Hermione huffed again, "If he doesn't work on his education, he'll hardly be able to protect himself will he?"

"That's part of it," Harry agreed, "But it's more than that. I just kind of realized how badly slacking off has been messing with my entire life. I can't afford it right now, I honestly never could."

Ron was looking less and less happy with the conversation, but surprisingly kept quiet about it.

"I've been lazy… nothing wrong with that, really," Harry said with an eye toward Ron, "except that being lazy when someone is trying to kill you is really stupid. I kinda want to live to take my NEWTS."

"Oh Harry…" Hermione's huff vanished instantly as she slumped. "You're not going to die."

"Of course not Mate." Ron said instantly, looking offended by the implication.

Which implication, Harry wasn't certain.

"I agree with you, Harry." Ron said after a moment's thought. "Though I'm not sure where Potions homework has anything to do with it at all."

Harry laughed, mostly at the sheer level of indignation Hermione managed to summon up in response to that. He managed to cut off her tirade, however.

"Probably nothing, Ron," He said honestly, "Nothing direct anyway. It's just… it's a pattern that I was just forced to see in my life. If I'm going to break the pattern, I've got to break it everywhere. Potions is just one part."

Ron sighed, and once again Harry could almost see him go into the tank. He waved Hermione to silence and went back to his potions work, letting Ron work things out on his own. Truth was, that was the only way Ron tended to learn. He had to make his own mistakes and think things through from there, which was where Harry thought Hermione kept going wrong.

Some people didn't learn from books, some didn't learn from people. Harry suspected that Ron was one of those, and Ron simply needed to learn some things for himself from the ground up. It was slower than other ways, but it had its own advantages as well.

When Ron finally came back up, Harry could see that he was a lot more relaxed.

"You're probably right, mate." Ron said then, "Never thought about it, but I can see how it could be true."

Hermione shot Ron a dark looked at the word 'could', but Harry just smiled slightly. There was the difference in Hermione and Ron's core personality, unless he missed his guess. Hermione accepted 'facts' easily, Ron grudgingly accepted 'possibilities'.

Harry decided that he wanted to exist somewhere in the middle of the two.

* * *

In his room, Xander stripped off his robes and took a quick shower before coming back out and heading into his 'doorway'. Inside the habitually locked door, Xander had decorated the modest 'office' space with a 'borrowed' school desk. He'd pilfered that, and the chair, from one of the unused classrooms along with a small shelving unit for his more common books.

Most of his portable library was kept in his trunk, which he unfortunately couldn't take into the doorway due to the size differences within each item.

The trunk stored much more space than his door, so while the door could fit into the trunk, the trunk would catastrophically dismantle the doorway if he tried to stuff it inside. One of the rules of expanded space was that, while you could place an expanded special item within another similar item, they would take up the same amount of space as their expanded volume.

It was a mind boggling set of calculations, but what it boiled down to was that Xander would have to step out to get his books.

He was working on an idea to solve that, but not just then.

No, tonight Xander decided to just polish off his plans for TV in his room.

It wasn't a complicated job, actually, and he'd already managed to talk to Willow about it a few times over the holidays. She was working on that end with Sirius, who had volunteered in exchange for getting one of his own.

The idea revolved around a large fifty inch mirror mounted on the back wall of the room and, of course, Xander's favorite spell, The Protean.

At home, Xander knew that Willow had bought a large projection television and connected it to premium cable. In the same room, mounted just the right distance away to frame the TV perfectly, was an identical mirror to the one Xander was etching runes on just then.

Willow and Sirius would be perfectly echoing the Protean Runes Xander was working on, creating a magical link between the two. Assuming they weren't done already, Sirius was better at runes than he was, Xander had learned. Though the former prisoner had taken a few weeks to brush off the rust.

When he was done, Xander carefully charged the runic lattice and activated the mirror.

It remained black.

"Hmmm…" Xander picked up his Spell Phone and thumbed in the dial for Willow, "Willow?"

"Yes Xander?" Her voice came back instantly.

"Did you finish the mirror?"

"Oh yes, is yours done?"

"Yeah, but it's black…"

"One second… I have to turn on the TV."

Xander groaned, palming his face as the mirror snapped to life, the image brightening until he was watching Home Improvement over his magic mirror.

"Heh. More power." Xander grunted, grinning widely.

"Xander Lavelle Harris! Don't you DARE use him as a role model!"


	99. Chapter 99

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After classes the next day Xander found himself summoned, literally summoned, to the library by Wednesday. He went, both out of a certain measure of fear of what she'd do if he didn't and curiosity. She'd never particularly cared if anyone showed up before, so he really did want to know what this was all about.

Hermione was already present at their habitual table in the corner when he showed up and took a seat, they both turned to look at Wednesday.

"So what's this about?"

Wednesday gazed on them evenly for a long moment before she spoke, "Were you aware that we had created a cabal for control of the students here at Hogwarts."

Xander blinked as Hermione's jaw dropped.

"What?"

"Weird, I think I'd remember doing that." Xander tapped his jaw idly.

"Indeed. I as well." Wednesday confirmed, "However apparently not, as I was informed last night."

"Oh yeah? Who 'informed' you?" Xander asked, grinning but curious.

"Miss Patil." Wednesday replied, "And her evidence, while circumstantial, is persuasive."

"Well if I don't remember doing it, and YOU don't remember doing it…" Xander mused, slowly turning to look at Hermione. Then he pointed at her sharply, "Admit it! You're a Dark Lady in training."

"What? No!" She hissed in reply, "I don't know what she's talking about!"

"Sure. Pretending to be our friend just so you can take over the school." Xander sniffed, "Gryffindors… you just can't trust em. I always knew your house was hiding some dark secret. I mean, at least we Slytherin's come right out and tell you we want to rule the world."

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Right. Now, if you two would please cut that out for a moment."

Hermione glared at Xander, but her response died in her throat as she turned back to Wednesday. "Fine."

Xander shrugged, "Sure. Go for it."

"She pointed out that Hermione, by befriending Potter, established herself in Gryffindor early on. With him taking your advice, Hermione, you DO have a certain degree of influence in your house."

"Well of course, but that doesn't mean…"

"While Xander has been undermining Draco's position in Slytherin…"

"Hey, he makes it EASY." Xander said in his defense, then frowned, "Why am I defending myself here?"

"I'm certain I don't know." Wednesday replied dryly, "However, as a result, you have a certain following in your own house. Plus a degree of respect in the others, though it is muted because you rarely take the lead as it were."

Hermione frowned, "Ok, I guess I'm seeing that. What about you? I presume that Padma had something to say about Ravenclaw?"

"Indeed. She pointed out that with my cessation of neutrality this year, I have inadvertently unseated the reigning clique within Ravenclaw." Wednesday said with a mild frown, "I find myself not displeased with the result.

Xander stared at her strangely, causing Wednesday to pause and stare back.

"What?"

"Did you know I don't think I've ever heard you talk this much?"

"Did you know I am fully aware of the portkey coordinates for your bedroom?"

"Shutting up now."

"Intelligent decision." She said, turning her focus back to the two of them. "Miss Patil approached me with a request to… join our cabal."

"What!?" Hermione shrieked.

"Quiet!" The librarian growled in their direction.

"What?" Hermione leaned on, hissing. "Well she… she can't."

"Why not?" Wednesday asked, one eyebrow raising.

"We don't have a cabal, that's why not!"

"On the contrary, we obviously do. The question isn't whether we have it, it is whether we adjust our actions from unintentionally developing it, to INTENTIONALLY developing it."

Xander shrugged, "I'm in."

"But… but…" Hermione blinked, "We can't. Right?"

"Why not? Hogwarts tradition, really." Xander replied. "The Marauders, The Coven, hell the Founders themselves… Moldy's Death Eaters were born as a group in Hogwarts, I'd bet."

"That last one is hardly encouraging."

"I fail to see why not. They were remarkably successful." Wednesday countered.

Hermione gaped at her, jaw kind of moving but no sounds coming out, until Xander chuckled and came to her rescue.

"I don't think Wednesday is approving of their ideology, Herms." He said, "She's just saying that they did become pretty influential. If Harry hadn't gotten his big forehead in the middle of things, they would probably be running things in the open now. As it is, they're still running a lot of things from the shadows."

"That's not a good thing!" Hermione hissed.

"Perhaps, but we aren't speaking of following their philosophy." Wednesday countered, "I'm speaking of using the influence we've gathered to help ourselves, and those within our group, advance our own plans and agendas. I rather suspect that pureblood ideology won't be on our lists."

Hermione tried to find an objection, she really did, but she couldn't seem to find anything wrong with what they were saying. Not exactly, anyway. "But… but it's wrong to form groups to try and manipulate people…"

"Says the founder of SPEW." Wednesday rolled her eyes.

"That's completely different."

"Indeed, we're not suggesting that we try and force anyone to adapt to our opinions." Wednesday said, "We're merely proposing a… mutual aid association."

Hermione sulked, "I guess that's alright then."

"Indeed. Miss Patil has offered to share some of her family's magical books with us in exchange for similar consideration."

"I don't really have anything like that…" Hermione said haltingly.

Xander snorted. "Right. You've got at least partial credit on almost everything I've done over the years, including the new shield spell you and Wens helped me on."

"Indeed. Plus, I suspect that if you were to ask Mr. Potter, you could turn up a tome or two that none of us have seen or could easily access." Wednesday replied.

Hermione looked horrified, "I'm not going to use Harry that way."

"Good. So in turn, if you learn something that could help him with his problems," Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Lord knows he has enough, then it would be a fair trade. No?"

"I… I suppose." Hermione was still pouting. It sounded right, but… Cabals were evil, weren't they?

"So, are we in agreement, then?" Wednesday asked.

Xander shrugged, "Padma's cool."

"I… yes, I guess."

"Excellent. I'll inform her later." Wednesday said with satisfaction.

"Cool." Xander grinned, "So, you wanna start planning to take over the world?"

"Xander!" Hermione hissed, appalled with his sense of humor.

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Hardly. The last thing I want is to be responsible for this pack of sheep."

"Wednesday!"

Xander grinned wide, shaking his head. Hermione was just too easy sometimes.

* * *

Harry frowned to himself as he skimmed through the Prophet, noting that the TriWizard tourney was still getting more than its fair share of headlines, as was he much to his annoyance. It wasn't too bad, though. He'd been prepared for a lot worse, but apparently Andromeda had been serious when she told him that she would handle the press.

He hadn't been misquoted too bad, and after the first article from Skeeter making him look like a spoiled brat, he hadn't read anything else from her at all. There was tons of speculation on his personal life, and Harry had noted that Skeeter was writing about him a lot in Teen Witch, but thankfully it stopped at speculation and didn't actually name any names.

Not that it had to, Harry supposed. Parv was clearly described, as was Hermione. People outside of Hogwarts may not recognize them, but he was quite certain that everyone at school saw it for what it was.

He set aside the paper, picking up the rest of the package he had received from Andromeda via Owl Post.

He groaned when he saw that most of it was paperwork.

"Why do I have to fill out tax reports for 1982?" He asked himself, staring in horror at the documents. "I need Hermione."

He paused, looking at the papers again for a long moment. "I need an accountant."

When had his life gotten so bloody complicated anyway?

He looked askance at the paperwork again, then shook his head and put it aside. There was no bloody chance in hell that he was going to try and do that himself.

"This taking responsibility stuff blows."

* * *

Xander grunted in annoyance as he again failed to cast his new spell. He really didn't understand what was going wrong, as far as he could tell everything checked out and the damn thing SHOULD work.

Except, you know, it didn't.

Spell Crafting wasn't a straight forward step by step thing, unfortunately. He'd known that going into the project, but had gotten probably a little too cocky about his successes, Xander supposed. The idea had seemed sound, but he was starting to think that maybe he'd just overreached himself, or maybe he just wasn't on the track to a workable spell.

He hated the idea of admitted that, though, cause it would basically mean flushing a ton of work.

He was still grumbling over it when Harry surprised him, entering the room of requirement for his normal practice sessions.

"Hey, Xan, what's up?"

Xander almost jumped out of his skin.

"Jesus, Harry! Don't DO that!" Xander growled out as he settled a bit and turned to look at the other boy. "I swear, I'm going to put a bell on you!"

Harry blinked under his think glasses, "Pardon me?"

"You're way too quiet for your own, or my own, good." Xander growled.

"Right." Harry said slowly, "And you're all twisted up over what exactly?"

Xander sighed, shaking his head, "Just a spell I'm trying to cast."

"Oh?" Harry perked up, that sounded more interesting than his current tax issues. "Anything cool?"

"Sure, if it worked." Xander said dryly. "I can't get a fizzle though."

Harry blinked, "Oh? Must be tough, I mean the Patronus is really hard and I got a BIT of a reaction when I first tried that one."

Xander shrugged, "It shouldn't be THAT tough, it's a bit of a mix-up though, so I may have crossed some equations and nullified something important."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Tell me about it." Xander snorted, shaking his head. "It's probably going to mean tossing out the Arithmancy equations and starting over, cause I can't find any error."

"What does the spell do?"

"Nothing." Xander laughed, his tone a little bitter. "It should be a shield spell, but it does nothing."

"Cool. Well, I mean what it should do and all. Can I try?" Harry asked, "I'm pretty good at Defence, despite the teachers trying to kill me every year."

Xander grinned, but eyed Harry speculatively. Harry wasn't blowing smoke, he knew. The boy was a powerhouse, and had an instinctive capability with fighting spells that was frightening. He considered it for a moment, then shrugged, "Sure. Here, the wand motion is a bit tough, it's a three point gesture with a spiral flick to the center of the points…"

Harry watched intently, nodding as his hand involuntarily twitched to match what Xander was showing him. "And the incantation?"

"Protego Facetus." Xander replied, "Roughly it translates to Faceted Protection… about as much as any spell actually translates anyway."

"Huh?" Harry asked, confused, his hand still twitching.

"I just mean that Wizards make a lot of shit up." Xander grinned, "Then pretend it's always been real."

Harry just nodded, still confused, but more interested in the spell. "Ok… so we just sweep the wand in three points, then swirl flick…"

Harry did so, sweeping out the triangle in three equal motions, then flicked the wand to the center as he called out, "Protego Facetus!"

Xander was surprised when there was a glimmer of power from Harry's attempt, and took a step back as he eyed the fizzling spell. "Do that again."

Harry frowned, but nodded and repeated his actions.

Xander moved closer this time, making mental notes as the spell fizzled again. "You've got a lot farther than I have… Ok, part of this spell is based on conjuration techniques, so I want you to try focusing on forming a very hard shell across the Protego…"

"Alright…" Harry frowned, focusing hard. Conjuration wasn't his forte, and they hadn't really started on any serious forms of the discipline.

Xander seemed to read his uncertainty, "It's just plain elemental conjuration, don't worry about the form. Just imagine it covering the shield."

Harry nodded, focusing on the spell again.

"Protego Facetus!"

Another shimmer erupted from his wand, this time coalescing into a misshapen silver mass in front of him. Harry blinked, staring at it in confusion as the mass followed his wand around. "What is it?"

Xander chuckled, "The ugliest chunk of elemental titanium in Scotland, I'd guess."

Harry shot him a hard look, "Is it supposed to look like this?"

"Not hardly." Xander laughed again, "But you're doing heads and shoulders better than me…"

He paused, considering, "Torso, arms, waist, legs and feet too actually."

Harry rolled his eyes as Xander tapped on the mass with his knuckles, listening to it echo slightly. "Is it supposed to float like that?"

Xander nodded idly, examining the results of the spell. "Yeah. It's tied to the shield spell. Ok, let it drop."

Harry did, and was mildly surprised to see the titanium mass clunk to the floor.

Xander stood over it, frowning, "That's not supposed to happen."

"What?"

"It's conjured titanium, Harry… it should have vanished when you dropped the spell."

"Oh. Why didn't it?"

"How the hell should I know?" Xander nudged the material with his toe, then shot Harry and distrustful glare. "You aren't breaking the laws of magic are you?"

"Hey! It's your bloody spell, Xan!"

"Uh huh." Xander muttered, still eyeing Harry skeptically. "Ok, try it again but focus on the triangle motion of your wand, and push it out into a pyramid shape in your mind as you cast."

Harry raised an eyebrow, that actually made sense to him, made him understand the wand motions better, so he nodded. "Ok…"

"Protego Facetus!" He called out, slashing his wand through the tri point motion, then stabbing through the center with the swirl flick.

The spell exploded from his wand this time, forming into a three point pyramid that pointed cleanly out from the tip of his wand and hovered there, twitching in response to Harry's wand motions as if waiting for a command.

"Ok, hold that for a bit…" Xander said, drawing his own wand again and stepping in front of Harry.

"Here now, wait a second…" Harry suddenly felt more than a little nervous, what with the untested shield between him and the guy he knew to favor bone splitter curses.

"Stupefy!" Xander snapped his wand out, not bothering to wait.

The red blast crossed the distance easily, splashing off the dull silver pyramid, and glanced off without effect.

"Bugger." Harry whispered, blinking. "I don't feel any drop in the shield."

That shocked him. His shields were pretty effective, if he did say so himself, but Harry knew that Xander could drop one of his Protego shields with three or four stunners, and he always noticed the drop.

Xander, however, just nodded. "The spell didn't penetrate the titanium, Harry. The Protego wasn't even touched. It's a two layer design. Hold your wand out to the side, will you? I don't want to catch you with this one if the spell fails."

Harry grimaced, but held the wand WAY out to the side, pointing it at Harry. The shield followed it easily, the pyramid shape eerily floating there and kinda creeping him out honestly.

Xander nodded, then took aim at the far side away from Harry and snapped his wand in a curse slash.

"Reductor!"

Harry flinched as the spell crossed between them, but it hadn't been aimed at him. When it contacted the shield it exploded, shattering the titanium shell along that angle of the pyramid. Harry was surprised when the power of the curse slid off the shield, along with the shards of metal, and scattered across the room off to the side.

When it settled, Harry breathed out a long sigh as Xander stepped forward, nodding.

"Right. How's the shield, Harry?"

"Still… still pretty much full power." Harry admitted, surprised.

"Good. Good. So far it's to spec," Xander said, at once happy, elated, and very, very frustrated. "Now I just have to figure out why I can't cast it. Still, not too shabby. The titanium shell should be able to handle most curses without problem, the Reductor notwithstanding."

"Not too shabby?" Harry blinked in disbelief, "I think it's bloody brilliant!"

Xander rolled his eyes, "It's a largely untested spell, Harry. Don't get carried away. Besides, it's not much use if you're the only guy who can cast it."

"Useful to me." Harry grinned, before faltering a bit. "I mean, if you don't mind me…"

"Go ahead," Xander waved him off, "Just remember it's experimental, ok? It should be better than a Protego and all, but who knows?"

Harry nodded, "I'll remember."

Xander sighed, glaring at his own wand thereafter, annoyed.

"Now if I could only get the damn thing working for me." Xander sighed.

Harry grinned, embarrassed slightly, and let the spell drop again. Xander glared at him as the remains of the titanium shield clanked to the ground and gently rocked where it lay.

"Damn it Harry! That's not supposed to stick around like that!"

"It's not my fault! It's your damn spell!"

"My ass." Xander muttered, "I'm good, but I'm not good enough to violate the laws of magic and thermodynamics with a mishmash spell like that."

Xander shook his head, nudging the remains of the two shells with curiosity. "I wonder if titanium has any magical properties I can use?"


	100. Chapter 100

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

When he got up the next morning, Xander showered and went into his portable office to change, frowning at the two titanium constructs that were still sitting there.

Still there. I wonder if he actually managed to conjure them permanently? Xander wondered, scowling at the impossible material sitting in his 'office'.

NAH.

Harry was good, but he wasn't some kind of God, right?

Still, Xander glared at the material as he buttoned up his robes. He would have to bring this up with Hermione and Wednesday after classes. He didn't know how the material was still there, but it was one mystery Xander really wanted to work out. Permanent conjuration wasn't spectacularly complicated, from what he had learned.

Water was easy enough to do, it was simply a matter of conjuring Hydrogen and letting it combine with Oxygen in the air. Hydrogen was easy to conjure, it being the simplest of elements. The catch was, as you moved up the table of elements, the difficulty in arranging a permanent conjuration increased exponentially.

Granted, Titanium wasn't terribly high up the table, but it was still higher than he'd ever heard anyone managing a permanent conjuration. Most wizards tended to crap out before they got to Oxygen, though there were some cheats available for that particular gas. Honestly, Xander didn't know of many spells that conjured anything higher than Hydrogen, other than a couple intended to let people breath in nasty environments like the Bubble head charm.

Hydrogen was the most common element to be conjured, simply because it was so common. Flame spells, water spells, even a few old levitation spells used it. Xander had read about a guy who floated an entire city on hydrogen filled pockets of wizarding space. He wasn't sure how the math worked on that, to be honest, but it sounded cool.

Wizards hadn't really found much use for conjuring most other elements, aside from Oxygen and, of course, precious metals. Experiments in conjuring Gold were pretty much what led to the generally available information on conjuring. When people learned they couldn't conjure gold they spent a lot of time figuring out what they COULD conjure… which, as it turned out, wasn't much.

The first books on conjuring, of course, didn't mention the elements at all in modern terms. Hydrogen wasn't even a word then, they referred to things like Phlogiston and Aether. Magic was weird that way, it wasn't always wielded by people who understood the universe… just by people who understood the MAGIC of the universe.

Magic tended to make allowances for some ignorance.

Of course, Xander had noted in his reading, it tended to punish some ignorance as well.

He finished getting ready for classes and headed out, locking the door to his 'office' as he went.

* * *

Harry was feeling a lot better about his situation, he had to admit. Ok, he was still stuck in this stupid tournament, and the third task was looming in the near future. But he had this feeling like he was finally getting some kind of grip on his life, a life that had been out of his control for so long that even the slightest change in that direction was such a good feeling.

After school was out, he was going to meet with Andromeda and start dealing with the issues of taking official control of his estate back. The Potter and Black resources had long been running on autopilot, and both had bled insane amounts of money with no one to keep up the investments. The Black investments had been a little less badly hit, mostly because the Blacks had put their money into very conservative businesses. What little they had in higher risk items was totally lost, as most of those businesses were entirely gone now.

Most of the Potter investments had survived, though they hadn't ridden out the changing times all that well.

For some reason they'd bought into Commodore and Apple computers, of which Apple was still around but it certainly wasn't much to speak of from what Harry could see. Many of the higher risk investments were the same, unfortunately. Either gone, or not having endured the decade and a half or so since the last time someone handled them properly.

His father had apparently been hands on, and didn't bother to nominate anyone to take over in his stead. That seemed a little… optimistic to the point of foolishness to Harry. Unfortunately, He'd probably never learn what his dad had been thinking.

For the moment there didn't seem to be any immediate danger to losing more off of those investments, but Harry knew that he'd have to get them active again if he wanted to properly manage his legacy.

So his summer was booked pretty solid, just on the whole Regent and Head of House thing alone. Harry planned on doing some magical training as well, however, now that he was fairly confident he could get his wand off the detection grid again.

His school work was getting a little better, though Harry had to admit that it still wasn't anywhere near where it should be, but in his own defense he was pretty busy. So he was pretty upbeat all in all as he headed to class.

Things were looking, if not up, then certainly away from the darkness he always seemed to find himself staring into.

* * *

The day dragged on like a snail for Padma.

She was both nervous and nearly giddy as she drudged from one class to the next, barely able to focus. That certainly wasn't a normal state of affairs for the Ravenclaw, but that morning Wednesday had walked up to her calmly and cool and said just three words.

Library. After class.

Others around her had taken it as a threat, but Padma knew it for an invitation. An invitation she'd asked for, and had now received.

Well, she hoped that was what it was. She didn't really think that even Wednesday would invite her to the library just to attack her.

Right?

Padma shuddered. Dealing with the Addams Clan was a razor's edge at the best of times, she supposed, and Wednesday seemed darker than her father had described them. Which, frankly, was scary.

Scary or not, though, Wednesday Addams was one of five students who were the most powerful influences in Hogwarts. She knew the names by heart, as did most of the purebloods in her year and later.

Draco Malfoy, whose control over Slytherin… while not complete, was still formidable due to the fact that his section of the house also controlled a disproportionate level of money, influence, and real political power.

Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived. His fame was influence in itself, but he was also the heir of House Potter… and possibly had links to House Black, if the papers were to be believed. Ironically he was the least of the five, though Padma suspected that he was the most magically potent by far. His practical allergy to his fame had crippled his influence, but it was still there just the same.

Then the three who shouldn't even be on the list, let alone in the top five.

Hermione Jane Granger. Muggle-born. No influence, no power from her family. No wealth as far as anyone could tell. Yet she wielded as much, or more, of Harry's influence than he did and her innate intelligence proved quite clearly that she was going to be a force in the future.

Wednesday Addams. Addams Clan. Wealth, Power, Influence… The clan had all of that, but they rarely, if ever, used it. Despite being an off again, on again, magical family for the better part of the last four thousand years by some accounts, they really showed no desire to interact with the magical world even slightly. And yet, Wednesday had. She ruled Ravenclaw through fear, but it was the TYPE of fear that was truly mind-blowing. No brute force, no cursing… she terrorized the house of intelligence Psychologically!

There was an art there that Padma had to admire.

Finally, Xander Harris. Nobody American. No power, though rumors did suggest he had some wealth, and no influence. Unless you counted the fact that he controlled at least as many wands in Slytherin as Malfoy did. No one was really sure how that had happened, but it didn't appear to be a fluke as he was maintaining that control and gaining ground by all accounts.

It might have seemed too silly to many people, but Padma was really nervous about joining with them. They were just her age, and really hadn't accomplished anything of note, but she felt almost as intimidated at the idea of sitting with them as she would if she were invited to join the Headmaster.

Firmly, she stepped down on that line of thought. It would do her no good, respecting what they had accomplished was one thing, but misguided hero worship for no good reason would NOT be the way to get them to take her seriously. It was just that she felt that… this group, they had a chance to accomplish great things in the future.

She wanted to be a part of that.

As such, Padma had carefully selected some of the basic primers from her family's magic to bring as an entrance fee of sorts. Nothing spectacular, just a good grounding in what her magical background was and how it could be used.

Indian Magic was a mix of Original spells along with both Western and Oriental arts. They weren't known for battle magic, however some of the most powerful healing spells had originated in her family's country, even in her family line.

Padma blushed, thinking about the tantric nature of those spells, but firmly pushed those thoughts away. She had to focus on class, at least partly, after all.

* * *

Xander dropped into his customary chair in the library with an audible thud, leaning back with closed eyes as he let out an annoyed breath.

"Hey guys."

"Alexander." Wednesday acknowledged him sedately, not looking up from her book.

"You ok, Xan?"

He shrugged, "annoyed."

"At what?"

"Harry." Xander replied, as if that explained everything.

To Wednesday, it really did.

Hermione, however, was frowning back in short order. "What did you do now?"

"I didn't do anything!" Xander protested, "I'm not the guy violating the laws of magic."

Wednesday looked up, then calmly closed her book. "Explain."

"Uh…"

The three looked up to see Padma standing there, and they nodded to her.

"Hey, welcome." Xander said, "Everything going good?"

"Yes, thank you." She replied, sitting down. "I brought some of my family books."

Hermione's eyes lit up, but she forced herself to refocus on Xander. "First, what do you mean, violate the laws of magic?"

"Indeed, I'm interested as well."

"Who's violating the laws of magic?" Padma asked, eyes wide.

Xander sighed, rolling his eyes, "I'm not sure. Look, it's this new spell I've been working on…"

"You got it working?" Hermione asked, smiling widely. "That's great!"

"Yes and no. Harry can cast it… it's just, the titanium he conjures…" Xander trailed off.

"Yes?" Wednesday prompted.

"I've got two huge chunks of the stuff still in my room from last night." Xander said with a sigh, "I don't know what's going on. It should have vanished when Harry dropped the spell, right? I mean, he's not THAT powerful… right?"

"I highly doubt it." Wednesday said thoughtfully, "Which means something unexpected happened."

"Was it our arithmancy?" Hermione frowned, "We didn't screw up did we?"

"If this is how you screw up, I'd LOVE to see you get things right." Padma said dryly. "You're certain it's conjured?"

"I… uh, well…" Xander blinked, "What else could it be?"

"Summoned?" Padma suggested, "Either from nearby stores, or perhaps the earth itself?"

"Huh. Didn't think of that. Still pretty damned impressive." Xander said thoughtfully. "You think maybe I should rejigger the spell a little, have Harry try to create gold?"

Padma rolled her eyes, "If he pulls that off try for the elixir of life next."

Wednesday sniggered.

Xander and Hermione stared at her in shock for a moment, then broke down into barely muffled giggles themselves as Wednesday blushed EVER so slightly and glared determinedly at the table in front of her.

"I'll keep that in mind," Xander gasped between giggles. "And just from me, Pad? Anyone who can make Wens lose control like that is welcome at this table anytime."

It was Padma's turn to blush at Xander's comment while Wednesday redirected her glare from the table to Xander himself, who just laughed it off in a way that awed Padma, who had seen Wednesday tear through her house like tissue paper.

"Ok, seriously," Xander said after another smile at Wednesday's glare, "This is an issue. I need to know if the spell is doing this, or is Harry just pulling a Potter?"

"Pulling a Potter?" Padma asked, one brow arched elegantly.

"You know, blocking a killing curse with his forehead, pulling a sword out of a hat to kill a Basilisk, that kind of thing…" Xander explained.

"Ah. Pulling a Potter. I'll have to remember that one." Padma smirked, "May I see your Arithmancy notes?"

Xander nodded, sliding them across. "Sure have at them."

She was mildly surprised he had offered them up so easily, the Arithmancy equations behind any proprietary spell were generally held as tightly kept secrets. If this one was in fact resulting in permanently conjured titanium, the notes would be worth… the phrase 'their weight in gold' was actually so minute a comparison that the idea was ludicrous actually.

Still, she carefully turned the note book over and began to pore carefully through the notes as Hermione motioned to her books.

"May I?"

Padma waved casually, nodding, and Hermione had soon appropriated the small pack of preparatory books.

"Hmm… This one seems to be about ritual magic…" Hermione blinked in surprise, "I thought that was dark…"

"Only in Britain and a few like-minded Western European nations," Padma replied absently as she perused the notes, "Though the idea is gaining traction internationally, much to the ire of many traditionalist families."

"Indeed." Wednesday nodded, "Rituals are neither light nor dark, inherently. They are magic."

"They are easier to abuse than most, however." Padma said, splitting a sliver of attention off from the notes to follow the conversation, "Rite based magic often calls on external powers, and few of those are truly 'benevolent'. Combine that with the fact that even squibs can channel rites, and the entire branch of magic is hotly debated at the highest levels."

"Oh." Hermione frowned, almost pouted in fact, before sliding the book away.

Wednesday casually slid it to her own seat and flipped it open, beginning to read.

Xander, for his part, broke out a tin of pencils and an artists tablet as he got down to sketching out a design.

"What are you working on?" Hermione asked him, noting that the design didn't seem particularly magical.

"TV Remote." He muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"TV remote." He repeated, looking up, "I love Wills, I really do, but I'm SO sick of chick flicks it's not funny."

"Again, please." Wednesday said, the words coming from her as if being dragged by rusty pliers, "with enough details so that we might have some small chance at comprehension."

Xander blinked, then frowned, "I didn't tell you guys? I made a TV a few days ago, but it's tied to my cable box back home, and Willow has the bloody remote."

"You made a TV." Hermione said flatly.

"Yeah…"

"How?"

"A couple mirrors, the Protean, and a bigscreen back home…"

Hermione blinked. "Oh. Actually that makes a lot of sense."

Padma, her attention now broken entirely, looked up in confusion. "What's a TV?"

The other three looked at each other, then back at her in a long moment of nearly stunned silence.

"Purebloods." Wednesday shook her head.

"Yow," Xander winced, "Wait… don't you take Muggle Whatever it is as an elective?"

"Muggle studies, yes I do… why?"

Wednesday and Xander stared at Hermione, who shrugged, "I dropped that class for a reason, remember? Professor Charity seems quite interested in Muggles, but her knowledge tends to be wildly variable… some of it is really quite out of date, and honestly in one class you can only learn so much."

"I guess." Xander blinked, "Alright, I guess I know what we're doing Friday nights then?"

"Huh?"

"Movie night." Xander grinned, "I'll check with the elves and see if we can get popcorn…"

He immediately grumbled, "They won't even get me Seven Up now, though, so we'll have to make do with juice."

"Seven Up doesn't have caffeine…" Hermione blinked, surprised.

"You try telling THEM that."

Hermione shook her head, "Sugar is bad for you anyway."

"Hello? Have you TASTED Pumpkin Juice?"

Hermione sighed, he had a point but she hated to admit to it.

"Anyway," Xander shrugged, "I'll set it up. Any movie requests? Comedy, Sword and Sorcery? Hey, I could put on Excalibur… be kinda fun to watch Merlin in action while at Hogwarts."

"As long as it's not The Sword in the Stone," Hermione replied dryly, "If your average wizard saw that they'd string us up for making fun of Merlin."

"Or think he's a great role model," Xander countered.

"Please."

"Dumbledore." Xander countered.

Hermione hesitated, then winced, "Point."

Padma frowned, glancing at Wednesday, "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

"I do," Wednesday nodded, "and I wish I didn't. I also wish they were wrong. I do, however, and they aren't."

"Oh." Padma answered, not really any better off than before she'd asked honestly.

Xander chuckled, "So, movie night ok with everyone?"

Wednesday shrugged and nodded. She could read quietly while the others watched, so she didn't mind. "Acceptable.

Hermione nodded, "Sounds like fun. Can I invite Harry and Ron?"

Xander shrugged, "Sure. How about you, Pad?"

Padma shrugged as well, she didn't have any plans so why not? "Sure."

"Cool. I score some snacks and get a couple DVDs lined up," Xander said checking his watch. "I'll call tonight and get Wills or Uncle Rory to buy or rent something good."

"By whose standards?" Wednesday asked dryly, clearly smirking.

"Quiet you, or it'll be care bears and my little pony for you."

Wednesday shot him a look, but didn't press. For one, she didn't want to know. For another, Xander was stubborn enough that he might just make good on his threat… and those names sounded… truly dreadful.

The four shifted their attention back to their current projects, conversation dying down as they worked, until Padma looked up from the notes she was reading.

"I can't be sure, since I've just skimmed these, but there doesn't seem to be anything in here to explain what you say happened." She said hesitantly.

Xander shook his head, "So Harry probably pulled a Potter."

"It seems so, the question is where did he pull it from, I suppose." She answered, with a trace of a smile.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Xander shook his head, "Harry's about as predictable as lotto numbers when magic is involved."

"I would suggest getting him to try conjuring elemental forms on his own," Padma said, "See if the same thing happens."

"A sound suggestion," Wednesday agreed, "Eliminate variables, as possible."

"We can do that," Hermione said, sounding eager. "I've wanted to practice conjuration…"

"Cool, you run Harry through a few trials then, Herms." Xander said, "I'm going to tear the spell apart and double check the numbers. Just don't overwork him, the third task is coming up."

Hermione nodded, "Right. So, start with conjuring titanium then?"

"Yeah, if he can do that, work him up the table toward gold." Xander suggested.

"You don't actually believe he can conjure gold, do you?" Padma asked tentatively.

"Nah. I don't think he can conjure titanium," Xander said, "Not really. I think we're missing something… but even if he can, gold is… staggeringly more difficult."

Padma nodded, feeling more than a little relieved actually. Potter as a powerful wizard was one thing, a comforting thing actually… Potter as a demi God capable of doing things even Merlin hadn't managed in MYTH… well, not so much.

"Knowing Harry he wasn't able to wrap his head around the word 'conjuring' and he summoned the stuff from a military jet or something." Xander muttered, rolling his eyes. "If so, let's hope they find it missing before some poor pilot gets his legs blown off because his armor isn't where it's supposed to be."

Wednesday snorted again, nodding in agreement, "That sounds very much like Potter."

Padma could see Hermione stiffen, looking very much like she wanted to defend her friend's honor, then sigh in defeat.

"That actually sounds entirely too much like Harry," Hermione said finally, shaking her head.

Padma frowned, "What is this titanium anyway? I'm not familiar with this element."

"Ok, I'm bringing in my table of the elements next time," Xander said, glancing at her. "The non-magical version is WAY more complete. Titanium is the twenty second element by weight, it's a metal that's twenty two times heavier than hydrogen."

Padma whistled almost silently. That WAS impressive.

She was also looking forward to seeing the muggle table of elements as well, "Is the magical table that bad?"

Xander shrugged, "Eh. It's missing a ton of elements, but a lot of them are muggle made, so that's forgivable. It has several that the non-magical table is missing as well, though. On the whole, the non-magical table IS far more complete, but neither is perfect. I think that they only add non-magical elements to the magical tables when someone discovers a magical use for them."

Padma nodded in understanding. Now she was really curious.


	101. Chapter 101

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Padma."

Padma looked up, mildly surprised that she was being addressed. Only she and Wednesday were in the common room, and despite their newly forged… association, Wednesday had never initiated a conversation with her. Not really.

"Yes?" She asked with some trepidation.

"Have you read this?"

Padma looked at the book, recognizing it as one of her family's books. Not proprietary magic, but rare enough that only a few families still had access to the spells within. She blushed, remembering the contents, and nodded quickly.

"This rite." Wednesday said, laying the book down so Padma could see the section, "Why have I never heard of the like before?"

Padma glanced at it, blushing again as much as her dusky skin would show, then paused as she took in which one Wednesday was pointing out.

"It's considered dark. In some countries, it's ranked along the same levels as one of the Unforgivables." Padma replied, shaking her head. "Doing it is a death sentence in those places."

"I fail to understand why…"

"Wednesday," Padma hesitated, "Ok. It's a tantric rite, nothing really wrong there. That one, however has no failsafes."

"Which makes it more efficient."

"True, and far more effective," She conceded, "However it also doesn't require little things like consent."

"Troubling, I agree." Wednesday admitted, "However if consent is acquired anyway…"

"You haven't read the rite details thoroughly." Padma said curtly.

Wednesday looked affronted, well in as much as she ever looked *anything*, and Padma hurried to explain.

"The male aspect of the rite, to be specific."

Wednesday frowned, eyes dipping to the pages again. She HAD skimmed those sections, she had to admit.

"The rite was designed by a patriarchal family," Padma said, "At any point in the rite the man can alter the conditions of the rite, without consent or even informing the woman or women involved."

Wednesday's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, "I see."

"Yes, I hope so." Padma smiled slightly, shrugging, "Given the nature of the rite, a man could implant unbreakable geas' into a woman's mind, or steal her magic. I'm not aware of any cases where the rite wasn't abused in the last four or five hundred years, and most of the stories of 'proper' use are really just fairy tales."

Wednesday nodded, "Yes I understand. Thank you."

Padma nodded, recognizing the end of the conversation for what it was, and went back to her own homework.

Wednesday carefully read over the rite again, this time all the sections, and made a notation in her notebook. Something was odd here, she decided, but she couldn't quite tell what it was. There was a discrepancy in the power of the rite, which was what she had originally intended to as Padma about, but now she thought she might see why.

Her scrawled handwriting ended with a single word, punctuated by a confused and scribbled question mark.

Fidelius?

* * *

Harry was feeling better, Hermione had come to him a couple days ago mumbling something about him breaking the laws of magic and his heart had sunk. Xander had obviously sold him out, the bastard. Still, Hermione had taken it upon herself to teach him how to properly conjure things, and he found that the technique was exhilarating. Also, it had dropped the effort level of Xander's spell by a lot when he tried it again.

Hermione on a rampage was a scary sight, but she did tend to get things done.

She'd also invited him to a movie night, which was both exciting and confusing. He'd never had a chance to watch a movie all the way through before, except in school a few times, so he really wanted to get the experience but he was genuinely curious how Xander had managed to get muggle entertainment into Hogwarts.

Still, he learned enough to know not to bet against Xander, so he wasn't going to question his good fortune.

Ron, on the other hand, was nothing but questions.

"So tell me again what this moves thing is?"

Harry sighed, there seemed to be some actual physical block that kept Wizards from remembering Muggle names for things. It was really annoying once you stopped laughing at it.

"Movie, Ron." Harry sighed, "It's like a muggle play. Wizards have plays, right?"

"Oy!" Ron looked affronted, "Of course we do, what do you think the Wizarding world is? Backward or something?"

Now there was a talking point open to debate.

Harry just shook his head, however, "It's like that, Ron."

"But why don't they just call it a play then?"

"Because they already have plays, and it's not exactly the same thing."

"Well then what is this Moving thing then?"

Harry wanted to sob.

* * *

Getting popcorn from the elves was only mildly more difficult than, say, getting them to leave a mess alone. After his last request they were a little iffy about getting him anything without checking its acceptability first. He'd been able to finally smooth talk them into a couple bags of kernels on the argument that they were seeds, and not for anything dangerous.

Xander had then held an impromptu seminar for the elves on the art of 'popping the corn', using one of the large pots in the kitchen. If movie night was the highlight of his week, learning about the 'poppity corn' was clearly the keystone of the elves', and they'd spent the entire time dancing around him as he got three big bowls popped and hit them with warming and freshness charms.

He stashed those in his portable door and turned back to the elves, "And that's the traditional snack of movie goers… well, that and soda, but…"

The elves nodded wildly, pulling at their ears.

"Yes sir, we sees. Thanks you for the lessons."

"No problem, thanks for the kernels and the use of the kitchen. Let me know if I can help you out with anything."

"Sirs is a great wizard, we be letting you know."

Xander nodded, shrunk his door down, and tucked it under his arm as he headed out to catch up with his friends. They'd decided to meet in an empty classroom this time, since they couldn't really set up the door in the library, and the common rooms were out for obvious reasons. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were already waiting for him when he got there and started setting up.

"It's a door." Harry said, blinking.

"What's it a door to?" Ronald asked.

"My parlor," Xander smirked, "Said the snake to the lion."

Hermione giggled slightly, while Harry smiled. Ron just looked confused.

"I don't get it."

"It's just a play on an old expression," Xander said, shrugging. "About walking into a trap, actually."

Ron's eyes widened, his hand dropping slowly to his wand.

"Which is what makes it a joke, Ron." Hermione rolled her eyes, grabbing his hand. "Honestly."

"Well how was I supposed to know that?" He demanded, "I've never heard that before, and half of his house would kill to get Harry and Me In a trap."

"Which is what makes it funny." Xander grinned, a little wider than he had to, to be honest.

"And you!" Hermione pointed, "Stop teasing!"

"If I have to." Xander made a show of pouting as the door opened and he turned, "Wednesday, Padma, welcome to movi…"

He stopped as he recognized the two people entering, "What are YOU doing here?"

The Weasley Twins smirked at him hands apparently clasped behind their backs as they entered, "Why we've just come to watch our dear brother's back, of course."

"Oy! Don't drag me into this! I didn't tell them nothing!" Ron objected.

"Too true."

"Yes indeed," The second twin sighed, "The lack of trust in today's youth…"

"Sad indeed." The first shook his head.

"So you were eavesdropping and overheard our plans," Xander said dryly, "Then you followed the trio here. Now you can leave."

"Oh, but we're hurt!" Twin One said, sniffing.

"Indeed. We only wish to join you in your event. It sounds… most curious."

"Most curious indeed."

Xander rolled his eyes, "And why should I let you stay?"

The twins looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged and brought their hands out from behind their backs.

"We brought libations!"

"We were told that this is a traditional offering for muggle movie night?"

They each had two cases of Butterbeer weighing them down.

Xander nodded slowly, "Fair enough. Welcome to Harris Theatre, I'll take those."

The twins smirked victoriously as the handed off the drinks to Xander, and he kicked open the door to his portable room, showing the lavishly appointed room inside, filled with deep reds and blacks, and dominated by a large mirror on the far wall.

"Red?" Ron blinked, "I expected green."

"Red is traditional." Xander said, smirking as he walked in and set the drinks down beside the popcorn, pausing only to hit them with cooling charms before he waved the others inside. "Come on in, take a seat."

Wednesday and Padma showed up then, barely giving the twins a glance as they walked in and looked around.

"I'm impressed." Wednesday allowed, taking a seat in the front row.

"Me too." Padma said down behind Wednesday, eyes wide as she stared around.

"Eh, I stole most of this stuff from Hogwarts, to be honest." Xander admitted, "but I like it."

Everyone settled down as Xander shut the door and adjusted the glowing lamps along the walls to a dimmer light. Then he took up his spell phone and keyed in Willow's code, "Hey Wills? We're here."

"K!" Willow said cheerily before cutting the connection.

Xander looked at it, frowning, then shrugged. He was setting down the spell phone when the mirror went dark, hushing the room, then an image of another room appeared on it. He blinked, then smiled involuntarily as a familiar figure stepped in front of the mirror and waved.

"Hey Xander, Hey Xander's friends!" Willow waved wildly as she grinned at them, "Welcome to movie night."

* * *

"Hey Wills!" Xander parroted back, waving wildly.

"Hey Wills!" The Twins followed suit, each gesticulating as wildly as Xander from behind him.

Then one twin frowned and looked at the other, "Do we know a Wills?"

"No we do not, brother mine."

"Hmmm. Odd that."

"Indeed."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Ignore the carrot roots behind me, they're uninvited party crashers."

Willow's hand went to her hair involuntarily, Xander's comment bringing back bad memories of her early school years. "Xander! You know I don't like comments like that."

"Trust me, these two deserve it and more. Oh yeah," Xander paused, drawing his wand and standing with a pivot, "Now that the door is sealed, I need to have a word with you about pranks… and their consequences."

"What could you…"

"Possibly mean?"

The two froze as another wand appeared, casually aimed between them, and Wednesday Addams froze them with a glance.

"What he means is that if you've cursed, jinxed, charmed, or otherwise tampered with the drinks you brought… or intend to do the same with anything in this room, we will make you… suffer."

The twins looked nervously for a moment, then forced a smile.

"You're not cute little firsties anymore," The first said.

Then the second picked it up, "but we're still older, wiser, and sneakier than you."

Xander snorted, "As if. Wens?"

"They're too stupid for subtle." She replied, "I could kill one. That might teach the other."

The twins exchanged nervous glances.

"That might be a little bit much." Xander replied, shaking his head. "Cripple one instead."

Wednesday smiled slowly, her wand dipping lower. "How about I remove the ability to reproduce from one of them? No great loss, one is enough to continue their genes."

Xander hid a wince, "That might work."

"Here now!"

"Let's not be hasty!"

"We didn't do…"

"Anything to the drinks!"

Xander snorted, "Wednesday…"

"Wait!"

"We admit that we were planning a prank…"

"At first! But we did some research…"

"You mean we asked Katie, brother dear."

"Right, research, as I said."

"Of course. And she told us what this Moving Thing was…"

"Movies! Movies! God Damn it, it's called MOVIES!" Harry suddenly totally lost it, shocking all of them to silence as everyone in the room turned to stare at the normally quiet boy. "What is so bloody hard about remembering one bloody word!?"

Silence reigned for a long moment as everyone just stared at Harry.

Finally Hermione spoke up, "normally I'd be annoyed with him for his language, but honestly I've had to listen to Ron do the same thing for three days… I'm with Harry on this one."

"Yeah… right…" Xander said slowly, shaking his head. "Alright, you two asked Katie. Why did that change anything?"

The twins shrugged, "Because it sounded like fun, and we didn't want to ruin a potentially fun activity for a short term blast like pranking you."

Xander exchanged glances with Wednesday, who shrugged imperceptibly. "Alright, fair enough."

He and Wednesday pocketed their wands and retook their seats. Xander smiled up at Willow, "Hey Wills. Sorry for the distraction, I see you made some alterations to the theatre setup?"

Willow nodded, still eyeing Harry nervously for a moment. "Yeah. I just added a pivot bar to the mirror mount, your guys here at the junkyard helped with the welding. A quick twist and we have a face to face communicator."

Xander nodded, "Nice teleconferencing system. Good idea, Wills, I should have thought of it."

"I like to think that I can contribute a little," She said with a smirk.

"You're so much smarter than me I stopped keeping track in first grade, I get less depressed that way," Xander smiled, "Alright. You get the movies?"

Willow nodded, "I thought we could start with something magical… Excalibur, like you suggested, or maybe LadyHawke?"

Xander grimaced, "Really Wills? LadyHawke? I need to get permission to tell Jessie about this so he can pick my movies."

"I like LadyHawke!" Hermione pouted, her expression mirrored by Willow's own.

Xander rolled his eyes, "If that's the choice, I vote Excalibur."

Wednesday, who hadn't watched many movies, made her choice based on what she knew about Xander, Willow, and Hermione. "Excalibur."

The purebloods in the room had no idea what either was, and cast their votes with Xander (in the case of the Twins), Wednesday (In Padma's case), and Hermione in the case of Harry and Ron, though Ron did so only reluctantly and after he worked out that his vote didn't matter.

"Fine." Willow pouted, "Excalibur then. I guess it's the better choice anyway, what with it being about Merlin and Arthur and all."

The purebloods in the room all perked up.

"Really? The muggles know about Merlin?" Ron asked.

"Merlin and Arthur are legendary." Hermione said calmly, "I think everyone in the Western World knows about them, and many everywhere else."

"Brilliant."

The twins nodded in agreement, and Padma settled in as Xander nodded to Willow. "Alright, I'm going to break out the snacks. Kick off the flick, Wills."

"Alright," She nodded, reaching forward. The screen swung wildly for a second, then went black. As Xander made his way to the back of the room for the snacks, the opening credits began to play.

He dimmed the lights further, then started passing the snacks forward before taking his own seat at the front between Wednesday and Padma and settled in for the movie.

* * *

"Magic doesn't work like that," Padma pointed out as the movie ended and the lights came back on.

"Who cares!?" Fred demanded, grinning.

"That was brilliant!" George added.

"You won't find many non-magical sources with accurate information on our world," Xander shrugged, "To be honest, most non magicals would think wanded magic to be incredibly silly and totally unrealistic. Merlin here is an example of how non magicals imagine Druid type wizards."

"Indeed," Wednesday nodded, "His form of magic was obviously more rite based, calling on his 'Dragon' for power."

"True," Padma conceded, "I suppose from that point of view it's not far off."

"Don't take movies too seriously," Xander advised, "Even the ones that look real are usually total bullshit."

"Alexander Levalle Harris!"

"Sorry Wills." Xander winced, glancing up to see the screen move and Willow reappear.

"You watch your language." She growled, jabbing a finger at him.

"Blimey." Ron gulped, "She sounded like Mum for a second there."

"Be silent, infidel!" Fred chastised him.

"She's much hotter than our mum, Ronnie." George smirked, as the duo bowed to Willow.

"Too true, yon lady is simple exquisite." Fred agreed.

Willow went red and started stammering, "Uh… well… W… what should we watch next?"

"How long do we have to curfew?" Xander asked, looking around.

"A little less than an hour." Wednesday said.

"No time then," Xander sighed, "We could put on some TV… what time is it there again?"

"Almost supper time," Willow said, shrugging.

"Bleh. Too early even for TGIF." Xander grimaced. "You know, we may need to rethink Friday night movie night."

"W… well, how about Saturday?" Willow suggested, "I can set up here in the morning, which would be afternoon for you…"

Xander nodded, "Works for me. You guys?"

"Normally we'd have Quidditch practice in the morning," Fred said pensively.

"However, thanks to our favorite champion and his cronies," George smirked, "We happen to be free."

"I wasn't asking you two, and I don't care."

"Ouch. That's not nice."

"Indeed not, brother mine."

"Neither is a permanent freezing charm cast in strategic places," Wednesday offered, "But it could be arranged."

The twins gulped and crossed their legs, "We'll just be quiet now."

Xander smirked, looking at the others, "You guys?"

"Good with me," Ron shrugged.

"Same here," Padma admitted.

Harry nodded, "I need to train, but I can do that in the morning."

"I guess we're decided then," Xander said, receiving a nod from Hermione. "Wills?"

"I can have it ready. Any choices?"

"How about an Indiana Jones Marathon?" Xander suggested. "Not magical, exactly, but close enough to make a little sense to our poor deluded companions here…"

"Hey!" Padma objected, scowling playfully at him.

"While still giving them a base in non-magical culture." He finished with an apologetic wink in her direction. "Heck, it's probably about the right time frame to help them with their 'muggle studies' homework."

Hermione sighed, "I wish you were wrong about that."


	102. Chapter 102

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Harry frowned as he focused on the spell, working through Hermione's advice he'd managed to improve the casting time and responsiveness of the spell, but he was being distracted by thoughts about the movie of all things.

While it wasn't the first time he'd ever seen one, it was the first time he'd watched a movie with friends. It was… a completely different experience than watching one in class, he had to admit. Of course he'd never seen a movie with nudity in class either, so he'd been really glad of the lowered lights. The darkness hid his blushing.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind, focusing on the techniques Hermione had drilled into him about conjuration. He had to admit that they really helped with the shield spell Xander had taught him, letting him get the shield up in half the time and with a lot less power. Harry figured he could shave another half second, maybe more, off the formation of the shield with practice.

For a spell that only took maybe two seconds and a bit to cast, well that was pretty good he figured. Especially since every instant in a fight was a big chunk of eternity.

He was still practicing it when Xander showed up for his morning routine.

"Looking good." Xander said as he entered the room of requirement, barely keeping the jealousy out of his voice as he watched Harry easily master a spell he'd created, yet couldn't cast.

"Thanks," Harry said, pausing as he wiped some sweat from his eyes and poured some water from a jug he'd brought. "Drink?"

"Not yet, thanks." Xander said, shaking his head as he tossed his robes aside and stretched a little in his tees and sweat pants. "You need to get some normal clothes, man."

Harry glanced down at his robes and shrugged, "These are better than any clothes I've ever worn, except that suit we got this summer I guess."

Xander shrugged, "Whatever."

"Hey, before you start," Harry held up a hand, "I've got the spell down now, I think. No more metal clanking to the ground when I'm done anyway."

"Yeah?" Xander half smiled, shaking his head. "Cool. Show me."

Harry nodded, extending his Ollivander wand. "Protego Facetus!"

The pyramidal construct snapped into existence in front of him, floating in clear defiance of gravity. Harry grinned from behind the armored shield, proudly showing off his mastery of the spell.

Xander smiled, though he felt a little sickly again at seeing his spell so easily mastered by someone else while he couldn't yet manage it himself. He wanted to be happy for Harry, but sometimes it was really hard.

"Alright, let it go." He said after a moment.

Harry nodded, dropping the spell, letting the conjured metal vanish into nothingness along with the energy of the Protego shield.

"Nice." Xander nodded, "Ok, now try it the way you did it the first time."

There was a long pause.

"What?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "I still want to know how come you were conjuring actual titanium, Harry."

"Uh…" Harry hesitated, thinking about it. "But… I don't know what I did before."

Xander stared at him for a long time, "You… No, I know that, but you did it before, you can do it again… right?"

Harry just looked puzzled, "I guess."

"Alright… so give it a shot."

"Uh… ok… Protego Facetus!" Harry blurted, letting the shield form.

Xander nodded, "Ok, let it drop."

The spell, metal shield and all, dropped and vanished.

"No, Harry, like the first time…" Xander said, exasperated.

"Uh. I don't know how?"

Xander stared at him until Harry started to feel a little nervous.

"You… don't know how?"

Harry shook his head.

"He doesn't know how." Xander turned away, visible restraining himself from doing something harsh. "Geeze Harry! Didn't you think it would be useful to conjure real materials?"

Harry was shrugging as he turned back. "I guess. I didn't think about it."

"And Hermione didn't say anything?" Xander's voice sounded pained.

"Uh… I don't think so."

Xander slumped.

"Xander? Are you ok?"

"I think I'm going to cry."

* * *

It was just after lunch when Padma and Wednesday arrived at the empty classroom they'd claimed for their 'movie day', the first to arrive by a narrow margin, followed by the Gryffindor contingent, minus Harry.

Padma greeted Hermione with a smile, but just barely acknowledged Ron when he said hi. She was no fool, and knew that if not for Xander and Wednesday she'd have been humiliated at the Yule ball. She had no intention of forgiving either Ron or Harry anytime soon, and even if she did she intended to see them work for it.

Ron barely seemed to notice the snub, however, so she was denied that small satisfaction as Xander and Harry arrived. They looked like they'd come straight from the showers, wet hair plastered to their heads, and Xander's shirt was sticking in places where he hadn't dried himself off.

Padma closed her eyes, pushing certain admiring thoughts out of her head. The last thing she wanted was to get Wednesday thinking that she was moving in on her territory.

That way led to painful endings.

Xander was moving like a man on a mission, however, and didn't even glance at her OR Wednesday as he steered straight at Hermione and simply reached out and started strangling the Gryffindor genius.

There was a long startled moment in which no one acted, even Hermione seemed too shocked to do anything as her head was shaken back and forth in a mass of bushy hair.

"Hey!" Ron blurted, drawing his wand. "You ca…"

He stopped when he felt a sharp jab in his crotch, his eyes darting down to see a dark wand pointed at his privates. As he slowly looked up the wand to the hand, then arm, body, and finally face, he found himself staring at two bleak and black eyes.

"Don't." Wednesday said simply.

"Uh…"

She wasn't paying attention to his gurgling, however, and had already turned to look at Xander while keeping her wand trained on its target, "Alexander?"

"Yes Wednesday?" Xander asked, still shaking Hermione.

"May I ask why you're strangling our friend?"

"You remember Harry's conjuring 'problem'?"

"The titanium? Yes."

"She fixed it."

"I fail to see the problem," Wednesday admitted after a moment's thought.

"No… She fixed it. He's conjuring normally now. He doesn't even remember how to do it the other way." Xander said.

"Ah." Wednesday said, jaw dropping slightly. "I see. Carry on."

The twins looked at each other, confused but not overly worried. They'd seen enough roughhousing to know that Xander wasn't actually inflicting injury, but they were royally confused by the conversation.

Padma, however, did understand it and was groaning as she pinched her nose. "You're kidding."

Harry just sighed, "Xander, let her go."

"You don't get a vote. You're fixed." Xander muttered.

"Oy!" Harry objected, "Don't say it like that!"

Xander rolled his eyes, letting Hermione go and shaking his head. "What? She may as well have neutered you, she cut off something I consider pretty valuable."

Ron squeaked, holding himself. "Harry! She didn't!"

"RON!" Harry and Hermione snapped at him.

"Honestly, Ronald!" Hermione growled, rubbing her throat as she smoothed her hair back and glared at Xander, "Was that really necessary?"

Xander considered it for a long moment, then nodded. "Yep. Come on, Hermione! We had a guy conjuring REAL titanium out of somewhere, now he's…. bloody normal!"

"It's hardly my fault!" She snapped waspishly, "All I did was talk him through the mental aspect of conjuration!"

"Oh, so he's mental then?" Xander asked, nodding, "Makes sense."

"Hey!"

Xander shook his head, sighing. "From now on, Hermione, we don't fix things that aren't broken… not until we've figured out how they're working as it stands, just in case we want to go back. Deal?"

She glowered at him, "I'd like to point out that we all agreed with teaching him proper conjuration as an experiment, but yes we have a deal."

He nodded, "Yeah I know we did. But I just can't help but imagine that we've just lost out on something big."

"Presumably," Wednesday said calmly, "He still has the capacity, just not the ability. We should be able to recreate it, though it may be easier if we are able to determine what he was doing, precisely, in the first place."

The three turned to look at Harry pensively.

"W… what?" He asked, getting nervous.

"Lab rat?" Xander asked.

Wednesday nodded, "I believe so."

They glanced at Hermione, whose eyes had taken on a gleam that seriously disturbed Harry. "Agreed. But it'll have to wait until next year, he has too much work to do for the tournament."

Xander and Wednesday reluctantly agreed and, a deal in principal reached, Xander produced his door and set it up against the wall.

"Alright, old business is now tabled. Shall we adjourn to the Indy marathon?"

"Second."

"Motion seconded," Xander nodded to Hermione, "All in favor?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"They ayes have it," Xander said, opening the door. "Welcome to Harris Theatres… no sticking your gum under the seats."

"What's gum?" Ron asked as everyone filed in.

"Nothing!" Hermione clapped a hand over Xander's mouth, "Just a non-magical thing. Don't worry about it."

Ron looked confused, but nodded and walked in.

Hermione refused to look at Xander as she too entered, Xander just shrugged and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Xander was somewhat surprised by the reactions to the movie series as they progressed through the series, watching the movies in the order they'd been filmed instead of the chronological order. When the Nazis showed up in Raiders, both the twins and Padma had reacted with visceral reactions similar to his own. He'd had to ask about it after the movie was over, and one thing that hadn't turned up much in his studies of the magical side of the Second World War was the fact that the SS Uniforms were very similar to Grindlewald's own Stormtrooper forces.

Magical cameras were still a fairly new 'technology', and few pictures existed from the Second World War on the magical side of affairs it turned out, but lots of descriptions had survived. Of course, the Nazi uniform was so equated with bad guys in the modern world that Xander hadn't really connected the two. It just made sense to him that Grindlewald's people wore black and red, and the lack of robes was hardly a big deal as far as he was concerned.

To the twins, who had apparently been brought up on war stories by some of their less reputable 'uncles', seeing the Nazis show up had been akin to watching and old boogey man come to life apparently. Padma was much the same because, unlike Hitler's legions, Grindlewalds people had in fact made serious inroads into India, Pakistan, and even some of the areas further east.

The second movie, Temple of Doom, had drawn the usual disgusted sounds from Ron and the Twins, Harry had seen worse of course, and Wednesday usually DID worse. Padma, however, actually got offended by times, and a little freaked out as the movie went on.

"The Thugee Cults still exist in magical India," She admitted after he questioned her, "much like the Death Eaters here. They're mostly quiet now, but my parents can remember times when they were very active. It's… like watching you know who come to life."

"Whoa." That had surprised Xander a bit, he'd never really thought about the historical aspect of the second movie.

"They're thugs and brigands," Padma sighed, "But the statutes of secrecy were always a little thin in India, and a few squib and lower caste wizards joined them, either for gold or just to kill the British."

"Oy! Why'd they want to kill British?" Ron objected.

"Duh, the brits were invading their land." Xander rolled his eyes.

Padma mostly ignored Ron, but nodded in Xander's direction, "Mostly yes, though for most of those types it was just an excuse to kill without repercussions."

"Such is the way of petty minds." Wednesday shrugged. "There is no difference between any of the myriad of similar groups through history. Civilizations devise laws, but there are always those who are unable or unwilling to live within them."

The third movie, in some ways, surprised Xander more than the first two, however as the purebloods watching didn't really follow the plot well, getting confused by the reference to Arthur.

"Wait, I still don't get it," George admitted, frowning, "What was with the cup thing again?"

"The Holy Grail?" Xander blinked, "I thought you guys were all about Arthur and Merlin."

"Oh, you mean that cup from the movie last night?" Padma blinked, "I wondered where they got that from…"

Xander exchanged looks with Hermione, "Isn't the Grail in the magical stories of Merlin and Arthur?"

She was also confused, "I'm not sure. It is in the oldest muggle tales, I'm sure."

"Weird." Xander frowned, "I wonder, did magicals edit it out, or did non magicals tack it on?"

Wednesday shrugged, "Either is possible. The Grail is an element of Christian tradition, one not strongly followed even within Christian sects. There are some who believe it to be an entirely fictional story created specifically for Arthurian legend."

"I wonder…" Xander mused, "Maybe it's a magical artifact that non magicals mistook for something godly? Like the Goblet of Fire, maybe?"

"The original descriptions do fit." Wednesday conceded.

Xander shrugged, "Anyway… The Holy Grail, to non magicals, is a religious artifact like they said in the movie. It's always been tied deeply with Arthur and Merlin, which is why you'll see it in almost all non-magical stories about Merlin."

"Huh. Weird." Ron shrugged, "Was a cool moving though."

Harry grimaced and his fists thudded into his forehead as he bowed his head and groaned. The twins glanced at each other, recognizing that Ron had gotten the name wrong, but couldn't remember it themselves and so for once exercised the better part of valor and kept their gobs shut.

The screen had turned to show Willow, who was sitting in a chair while snacking comfortably on some popcorn herself.

"The Holy Grail has always been a bit controversial," She said, "but few scholars actually believe it ever existed. There's no mention of it in any texts until around 1100 AD, and the first texts don't mention it as being godly at all."

"That's not too long after the magical world officially broke from the non-magical," Xander mused as well, sitting back. "I wonder if there's a connection?"

"Magically, there are several artifacts that match the physical description," Padma said thoughtfully, "The Goblet of Fire, as you said, the Chalice of Hufflepuff is another. It's said to have been charmed to transmute water to mild healing draughts, though there's some debate on how effective they were. Stories range from pepper up potion level to elixir of life level, but there's nothing to back it up."

"Wasn't it made of wood?" Ron objected, "The goblet's Gold!"

"That's just Indiana Jones' interpretation," Hermione said, "Remember last night? The Grail in Excalibur was far more ornate."

"Oh. Yeah."

"It seems likely that the original Arthurian Mythos was heavily influenced by the Magical World," Wednesday said after a moment, "So many of the artifacts from the stories likely existed in some form. Given that the original stories were deeply steeped in Celtic Mythology, and were only later hijacked by Christianity, it's unlikely that 'God' had anything to do with it."

"Makes sense." George said.

"Indubitably." Fred replied.

"Anything direct, you mean." Xander replied with a half smirk.

Wednesday glared at him, but only sniffed in annoyance. "Pest."

"Hey, just saying." He held up his hands, "Don't know if there is a God, but if there is a Creator type, then he was involved… just not directly."

"Granted," Wednesday conceded with a sigh, "However it seems likely that any creator's connection is most likely akin to your ancestors connection to you being here. They were involved, vitally so, but that doesn't mean they are here."

Xander shrugged, conceding the point.

"Anyway," He clapped his hands, getting up. "Everyone like the movies?"

Everyone nodded, the Twins in weird sync, one head up while the other was down.

"Excellent. Wills, Herms, Wens? Ideas for next week?"

"Star Wars?" Willow suggested.

Xander winced, "You know I'm not sure I want to own up to that one just yet."

Willow frowned, then her eyes widened. "Oh yeah… Sorry."

Fred and George exchanged suspicious glances, "What's Star Wars? And why would you have to own up to something about it?"

Harry, Xander, Hermione, and Willow exchanged knowing glances.

"Uh nothing." They said together.

Wednesday merely rolled her eyes.

The twins weren't buying it, but it was pretty clear they weren't getting anywhere with this group either.

"How about some pure action?" Xander suggested, "Terminator, Predator, Aliens?"

"Ew! No!" Willow paled.

Willow HATED Aliens. The whole thing just creeped her out SO much. "ET maybe?"

"Come on, Willow, something fun to watch!" Xander objected.

"ET is so fun!"

"Bleh."

"How about we compromise?" Hermione suggested simply. "Xander picks one, Willow you can pick one, and I'll pick one… unless you want to Wednesday?"

Wednesday merely shrugged, "That's alright, no."

Willow and Xander both pouted almost identically, "Fine."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Children. I pick the Princess Bride."

"Oh! That's a great one!" Willow perked up.

Xander rolled his eyes, but nodded, "Ok that's not bad. The Twu Wuv crap is annoying, but there's some really excellent humor and fight scenes. I want Predator."

Willow took her turn to roll her eyes, but it was better than Aliens. She sighed, thinking about it, then shrugged, "I'll pick something out but I don't know what yet."

"Alright. Next week then." Xander said, grinning.

Everyone agreed and the group broke up, though Xander remained in the room for a while longer after they all left so he could catch up with Willow, face to face as it were.

* * *

For each of them the time was moving swiftly now, rushing headlong into the end of the school year. Classes were a bit of a blur, as Wednesday returned to her research on the Goblet, Xander and Harry kept working to help Harry prepare for the third task, and Hermione delved into whatever she was presented with, with her trademark gusto.

The third task was coming quickly, and Harry was nervous about it, but knew that he was far more prepared for anything that he'd been just a couple months previously. With Hermione and Xander helping him, he felt that he could manage anything, and that was a good feeling.

Wednesday was growing more frustrated, and was concealing it poorly. Few in her house were brave enough to approach her as the days moved on. Only Padma, who tread carefully, and Luna, who blundered apparently blindly, came anywhere near her unless it was absolutely unavoidable. She was far from unsatisfied with the situation, however it did bring a degree of attention to her from people who normally wouldn't glance in her direction.

One morning at breakfast that came to a head as the blond Veela, Fleur Delacour stopped in front of her seat at the Claw table and stared at her for a long moment.

"Yes?" She said, looking up as Padma shifted nervously on her left, Luna blinking owlishly on her right.

"You are zee Addams, yes?"

"I am."

Fleur half bowed, "My deepest apologies for not greeting you earlier. I did not know you were here. Ma famille honore notre dette d'honneur."

Wednesday raised her eyebrow, gazing back silently in response.


	103. Chapter 103

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Wednesday Addams eyed the blond Veela from where she sat, considering the words she'd spoken. Finally she glanced over at Padma, who was wide eyed beside her, and nodded slightly.

"Sit." She said, her eyes coming back to Fleur.

Padma took the hint rising up as Fleur stepped around the table to accept the offered seat. She said nothing, waiting for Wednesday to break the silence as Padma found another seat nearby.

"The Clan doesn't collect debts," Wednesday said finally.

"The Veela do repay them." Fleur countered.

Wednesday's lips curled up slightly, "I see. It is so noted then."

"I am at your service, if you need me." The Veela said softly, "As are ma famille."

Wednesday didn't respond, opting to return to her breakfast instead. For a moment it looked like Fleur would press, try to force a conversation, but Luna leaned forward slightly and caught her eye as she shook her head. Fleur hesitated, then nodded and began to pick at the food in front of her.

She, like pretty much every Veela in France knew at least something about the idiosyncrasies of the Addams Clan. The Clan had turned from Myth to Legend then, when they'd come out of the shadows in the midst of a war and spirited away hundreds of Veela marked by Grindlewald's Stormtroopers for placement in one of many 'entertainment' camps for higher level members of the Order.

Almost no one outside the Clan or the Veela people knew of the Addams' intervention, history mostly crediting the Werewolf clans with the miraculous survival of the Veela. The wolves had been a common part of the first stage of many rescues, but it was the Addams that stood their ground against Grindlewald's forces in their entirety.

Fleurs grandmother was there one cold morning in December of Forty Three when Grindlewald personally led a force of three divisions of his Stormtroopers, complete with demonic attack dogs, battlemage support, and god alone knew what else to the boundaries of Addams Clan lands.

Forces that had flattened the mystical defenses of eight nations, destroyed countless armies in their passing, and made the word literally tremble… had splashed against the Addams wards like waves breaking on a sandy shore.

When then Clan Patriarch Charlus Addams calmly walked to the ward line and casually asked Grindlewald if there was anything he could do for him Fleurs grandmother had been afraid that he would broker a deal and turn them over. Instead the nonsensical banter from Charlus had enraged Gellert to the point that he unleashed everything he'd brought in a final assault that left his own forces broken while Charlus calmly shrugged and walked back into to his home.

Her grandmother had explained to Fleur that for the longest time no one could adequately explain the lack of reason in Grindlewald's actions. The man was a warding genius, he knew that you don't simply lay assault to ancient wards in such a manner. Those few historians who knew of the event ascribed it to a rare lapse in judgement and lack of general information about the battleground on Gellerts part.

Fleurs grandmother, however, had another explanation. She said that Charlus Addams had intentionally riled Gellert to the point where he saw nothing but red, and had done it with a cheerful smile and nonsense on his lips.

After that debacle, Grindlewald's main forces were broken. The weight of his demands fell more and more on his non-magical allies, and the momentum both sides had built began to crumble to dust as the Allied forces, both magical and non, poured into the breech and eventually dragged the man down along with his thousand year dream.

History credited Albus Dumbledore with taking down Grindlewald, but the Veela knew that Dumbledore would never have gotten within five hundred miles of the man if it hadn't been for Charlus Addams.

So Fleur kept her silence and ate, knowing that you didn't enter into a conversation with an angry Addams. It would have long term consequences that you couldn't predict, you could only dread.

* * *

Wednesday was highly aware of the blond eating at her side, her mind carefully cataloging every motion and expression as she considered the Veelas words. She knew about the history the Veela was referring to, it was Clan history after all. However, she had spoke the truth when she said that the Clan didn't collect debts.

Debts were for civilized people. Slaves and slave holders. The clan acted, and it accepted the consequences of its actions, whatever they might be. It didn't loan either its money or its members in any shape or form, nor did the clan borrow anything from anyone.

That wasn't to say the Addams were anything but generous and willing to provide support and succor. Her father, like his father, and uncountable generations before, gave freely of their money and their time.

The operative word being gave.

There was no expectation of repayment, not even a desire for it.

Only slaves accrued debt, only slavers collected it.

The Addamses were many things, but the one thing they couldn't abide in any form was slavery. Wednesday smiled slightly, amused slightly at how Hermione might react to that fact. She knew she hadn't been terribly supportive of Hermione's outrage, but that was in many ways the problem. The girl was all bluster, no substance. She had no plan, not even any research to support her actions.

An Addams did not bumble blindly.

Not unless they were looking for a good time, at any rate.

None of that told her what to do with the Veela at her side, however. The girl, her clan in fact, believed they owed the Clan a debt. Wednesday pitied her and her people that, but not everyone could be where the Clan was.

She sighed almost imperceptibly, she did not need this complication now.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore watched the scene at the Ravenclaw table with some puzzled concern. Delacours little speech hadn't been loud, but he'd focused in curiously from the start of the scene and was genuinely confused.

An honor debt? To the Addams Clan? He'd never heard of the like, the Addams didn't answer calls for help, they didn't loan anything. It was a signature element of the family, and one of the many reasons so few people in the world even knew they existed. They simply didn't interact much with society.

Young Wednesday's response told him nothing, which was far from unusual when dealing with her, he'd found. Most people were easy reads, in his experience. Body language, facial expressions, even word choice. Most of the time he didn't even need Legilimency to read someone's mind.

The young Addams scion, however, was an encrypted page to him much to his chagrin. He wouldn't even dare try Legilimency on the girl, even with cause, and her verbal tells were basically non-existent while her nonverbal were utterly alien.

He could, however, read Veela easily enough.

The Delacour prodigy was tense, but genuinely seemed to look to the Addams with some sort of reverent fear. An unusual combination in Albus' experience.

In Hogwarts it was not uncommon for Albus to see some of the most important future leaders of his nation meet and begin to forge long term alliances that would eventually shape the direction Magical Britain would take.

It was slightly more uncommon for him to see such things happening with the future leaders of Magical Europe.

What he was witnessing now, Albus Dumbledore feared would extend far beyond that.

* * *

Padma Patil was carefully reconsidering everything she'd previously thought in the light of current events. Delacour was an important name, both in France and, if she remembered correctly, among the Veela peoples. An honor debt meant something important to the Veela, it wasn't bandied around lightly.

In fact, she didn't think that there had been a public acknowledgement of any such debt in centuries. Decades at the least, she was certain. The Veela people had withdrawn from the world for the most part after the atrocities they'd suffered under Grindlewald's attempt at World Order.

Since then, at least, there had been no Veela honor debts acknowledged, she was sure. Prior to that she wasn't as certain, but it had been a long time.

This group has the makings of a world power, she realized with stark surprise.

Potter and, through him, Hermione could leverage his name into the premiere power in Wizarding Britain. She'd researched enough about Magical America to know that Harris was a well-known and powerful name there, which added to Xander's creativity could turn him into a serious power in the Americas in a very few years.

The Addams name spoke for itself within the circles who knew of such things, and the addition of a Veela honor debt was going to skew everything she'd considered.

This would take some thinking on.

* * *

Harry was largely ignorant of the proceedings at the Ravenclaw table, he had worries of his own to think about.

The third task was coming up shortly, and he knew he wasn't ready.

Forget all the extra work he'd being doing, the more he trained the more Harry realized just how far behind the curve he was. He had no way to get caught up in time, and would have to wing it as he went into the third, and likely most dangerous of the tasks.

Every year at Hogwarts seemed to deal him a crap hand, Harry thought, and it only got worse as the years went on.

Honestly, he was genuinely terrified of what was going to happen next year.

That assumed, of course, that he survived that long.

Ok, he wasn't really worried about getting killed. Not in the tournament anyway, he supposed. At worst a week or so in the infirmary, Harry thought. He had a much higher likelihood of dying on Privet drive in all honestly, since the Dursleys wouldn't take him to a hospital if he paid them.

Here at least Madam Pomphrey would see to any injuries he sustained, whether he liked it or not.

Harry smiled wryly as he considered that and refocused in trying to determine what he could do to give himself a chance at the last task.

* * *

Xander caught Wednesday's eye briefly as the blond sat down, but only nodded when he read the nearly imperceptible shrug as she glanced in his direction.

I wonder what Fleur wants? He wondered idly, but didn't worry about it. It wasn't his worry, and if it was, he knew Wednesday would fill him in.

Barely fill him in, probably, but just the same.

He shrugged and went back to his meal.

"You and your friends like to create a stir."

Xander glanced over to see Daphne eyeing him intently and just smirked.

"Keeps life interesting."

"You've brought Patil into your group."

Xander just looked sideways this time, "You're watching us."

"I'm watching everybody."

"Nice to know." Xander muttered, starting to wonder if maybe Padma hadn't exaggerated in her little story about their cabal. Who else is watching and thinking the same things?

"Why did you bring her in?" Daphne asked, making her voice sound slightly hurt as she pouted at him. She'd only recently begun to develop her seduction game, and felt that this could be a fun test.

Xander barely blinked, which was more than slightly irritating as he glanced up and to the side at her.

"She asked."

Daphne was a little miffed when he went back to eating, unaware that his mind was so caught up in wondering how many people were watching him and his friends that she probably would have had to flash him to get much more of a reaction.

* * *

Wednesday glowered at the book in front of her, frustrated by the attention it was sapping from her personal project of the year. The Goblet still waited, it's very existence an insult to the Clan… to any free thinking person anywhere in fact, yet she found herself unable to keep from contemplating the rites she'd found within Padma's contribution to the 'Cabal' they had formed.

It wasn't just the form of the rite, or its results, though those were both alluring in their own rights.

No, mere pleasures of the flesh or added power and gifts weren't enough to truly sway her attention. The Rite, itself, however was an enigma. An enigma she was beginning to believe she had solved.

It was a Blood Sacrifice, one that could be expanded according to need, and in turn granted certain power boosts and gifts to those who enacted it. Those granted boons, however, were out of magnitude compared to the sacrifice and Wednesday had puzzled over that discrepancy for days even while she was trying to focus on the Goblet.

Magic always balanced, like anything else in the universe. It only seemed to be 'free', you always paid for what you got. Often the costs were easily manageable for Wizards, however, so they didn't really think about it.

Transfigure a chair? A little focus and some magical power tapped from your core. The cost was there, but it was deceptively small. The vast majority of spells were much the same, costing focus, intent, and power. All renewable resources for a Wizard.

This made magic a very attractive and powerful ally, but it was predictable for the most part. A given spell would always cost a given amount, try to cast too much and you'd eventually suffer from Magical Exhaustion, an uncommon but well documented condition that generally put a Wizard or Witch off their feet for a few days to a couple weeks.

Arithmantically you could calculate and predict the cost of the spell, and its output.

This Rite, however, was defying her calculations.

The power output far exceeded the input in all measurable manner which, even by magic, was quite impossible. The puzzle of it was irresistible.

It wasn't unique in that, of course. There were several historical bits of spellwork that had been noted to be of the same nature, granting an effect seemingly far beyond the cost. Many of Merlin's infamous works were among those, but there was only one modern example of which Wednesday was aware.

The Fidelius.

It was an obscure charm, but one well discussed in certain circles. The Clan had taken an interest in it before she was born, Wednesday knew well, because too many in the Clan the idea of being able to simply… vanish… was incredibly attractive.

The main house wouldn't likely hide behind it, she didn't think. Honestly, she couldn't imagine her parents caring enough about the outside world to be frightened by it. However there were others in the Clan who honestly hated the society that existed around them, and would more than willingly secret away the very knowledge of their existence if they could.

That said, only one man knew how to cast the spell after the death of Lilly Potter, and Albus Dumbledore had no intention of ever letting it's secret out.

Now, however, she'd found another spell that fit the same arithmantic problems as the Fidelius… and, far from discouraging her, Wednesday thought that she had found the secret. The reason the spell worked, the reason it worked so well for so very little cost.

She'd located the sacrifice that truly powered the Fidelius and, if she was right, this new Rite as well.

She needed to check her calculations, however. She had to be sure.

* * *

Hermione was in her favorite place in the world, deep in the library stacks in search of something new. The Hogwarts Library was a treasure trove for her, things almost literally appearing on a daily basis and just waiting for her to discover them. She was carefully noting all the titles of her latest finds when a chill ran down her spine, causing her to pause and look up slowly.

She didn't see anything as she looked around, and shook her head slightly as she returned her focus to the books. A quiet cough brought her head up and Hermione shrieked when she saw Wednesday standing in front of her.

"Wednesday!" She gasped, "Don't DO that!"

"I need your help with something." Wednesday said blandly, ignoring the admonition.

"I'm a little busy now," Hermione scowled as she clutched at her chest, "Not to mention having a heart attack."

Wednesday merely stared until Hermione sighed.

"Fine, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I merely require a second opinion of a set of Arithmancy equations."

That brought Hermione up short, Wednesday was arguably the top student in the Arithmancy class. Granted, sometimes Hermione herself was able to squeeze out a marginally better grade, and occasionally Padma or Tracy Davis did the same, but Hermione couldn't imagine Wednesday needing her numbers checked.

"Oh?" Hermione finally mumbled, genuinely confused. "With what?"

"These." Wednesday handed a sheaf of parchment to her.

Hermione puzzled over it for a moment, then her eyes went wide and she looked up in surprise, "What is this? This isn't for class."

"No."

"Wednesday, these are some of the most complicated arithmancy equations I've ever seen." Hermione confessed, forgetting her stack of books as she began to pace. "There's fully a third of this equation that… it doesn't make sense, where are these numbers coming from?"

"I just need to know if they balance." Wednesday said simply.

"But… but this doesn't make any sense," Hermione stuttered out. "Where are you getting those kinds of numbers? I've never seen anything like this…"

"You wouldn't have. Most spells on this level are now labeled as irredeemably dark." Wednesday replied, "These are my projections for the Fidelius."

Hermione gaped at her for a long moment, then bent her head and began devouring the equations. Wednesday waited in silence for long minutes that quickly ate up the better part of an hour as Hermione paced between the stacks and mumbled to herself.

Finally the bushy haired witch stopped and looked over at her.

"The numbers balance, best I can tell. I'd like to take a couple days to go over them in detail," Hermione admitted, "But I don't see any glaring issues."

Wednesday nodded, satisfied. "As I thought then."

"But they still don't make any sense," Hermione shook her head, "I see the magical power of the caster's core is factored in, as well as the adjustment for tapping into the ward schema of a dwelling, but that still only accounts for less than half the power you're rating this spell at, and these numbers on the caster side of the spell don't match anything I've ever seen."

"They're sacrificial equations," Wednesday said simply.

Hermione took a breath, eyes widening as she slumped against a shelf and swallowed. "Blood?"

Wednesday shook her head, "no. Something… more powerful."

"But… what?"

"Faith." Wednesday answered, pointing to the section of the equations. "The person wanting the secret kept must offer up their trust and faith as part of the charm. If they don't have faith in their secret keeper, the charm will fail. If their secret keeper isn't worthy of their faith, the charm will fail… even if he doesn't tell anyone it could fail, if he betrays them in another way. The charm is powered by a sacrifice of trust. It's why you can't be your own secret keeper, why the Potters had to entrust someone else."

Hermione's brow furrowed, "but… how do you quantify trust?"

"You don't. That's the point." Wednesday said quietly. "There's no way to tell how effective the Fidelius will be until after it's cast, and even then the only sure way to know if it's weak is to have it broken. It's all about faith."

"Incredible." Hermione said after a moment's thought. "That's a completely different level of magic from what I've studied. It's…"

"Spiritual." Wednesday whispered softly, her voice almost reverent. "I know."

Hermione shook her head, "Why are you researching the Fidelius?"

"It's a spell of interest to the Clan," Wednesday replied, misdirecting Hermione with a partial truth. She had to think more on the original spell of interest to her before she told anyone, and even then she would only be telling those she chose. "The Clan has many tracts of land that would be worth hiding for the protection of the inhabitants."

"Oh." Hermione nodded, accepting the explanation easily enough. She knew about the magical preserves of the Addams Clan from previous conversations, particularly about Buckbeak. "Do you think you can recreate it?"

"With this information? I believe so, with time and work of course." Wednesday said. Likely Lilly Potter had recreated it from far less, she thought, so she was relatively confident that with the resources afforded her by the Clan she could create a working version of the Fidelius.

She wouldn't be trying on her own, or anytime in the near future, however.

Wednesday had other goals in mind.

* * *

The Third and Final Task of the TriWizard Tourney was looking in Harry's mind and his very near future, and nothing he did could make him feel like he was ready for it. He'd been working hard over the entire year, even more since Christmas, but every step forward he made seemed only to illustrate just how much farther he had to go.

All that said, though, he felt stronger and fitter than he'd ever been in his life.

Harry couldn't believe the difference in some of his spellcasting since he'd begun working on it seriously, he'd improved so much. His power was much the same as always, but he could cast faster and longer without wearing himself down and he could move!

Ok, he wasn't as insane as Xander.

Harry shuddered.

Running up and down walls, and casually dropping ten to twenty feet without a thought wasn't on his list of things to try, but Harry had learned more about dodging from Xander in the past few weeks than he had avoiding Dudley his entire life… and that was saying something, to be frank.

His offhand casting had improved a lot as well, at least with power attacks like Reductor and Stupefy. He didn't have the manual dexterity to really use much variety with his left hand, but being able to shield with the right and cast with the left had to be an advantage, right?

Not that he could use it in the tournament, unfortunately. Xander had been pretty clear about that, Harry knew. He wasn't registered to own two wands, so showing them in a public arena like the TriWiz wouldn't be the brightest thing for him to do.

Still, as aces go, Harry felt that the second wand stood as a pretty potent hole card.

The trouble was that, even with all that, he still felt so young when he compared himself to the other champions. Sure he was in the lead now, but Harry knew for himself how little of that had anything to do with his own work.

Xander and Wednesday were directly responsible for his scores in the first task, Hermione and Neville in the second.

He just felt… so very small sometimes.

Harry took a deep breath as he tried to settle his stomach and relax a little, the third task was coming, but he'd deal with it. He could deal with it, it wasn't beyond him. He didn't have to win, right? Just live through it?

Harry couldn't help but scowl.

He'd never realized until he played Quidditch, but he didn't like to lose.

Damn playing to survive. Harry wanted to win it all.


	104. Chapter 104

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

As the third task approached the tension at the school continued to mount, everyone more interested in the Tri Wizard than in their classes. For some the time dragged on, but for Harry and his little group of friends it was as if there weren't enough hours in the day.

Harry worked every day, skipping through some of his classes, trying to push his spellcasting to the limit as he trained with Xander, Hermione, and Ron. He'd moved on to speed and silent casting with Xander and Ron, trying to improve in any way he could, while Hermione brought new spells in to increase his flexibility.

He knew that the third task was likely to need more than just spell casting, but for now that was only area he could focus on that would provide results in time for the Task.

He'd have to play by ear for the rest.

Harry couldn't help but smirk, it sounded familiar.

* * *

Wednesday glared at her books, as if daring them to continue defying her will, which they stubbornly continued to do despite her best attempt.

No matter what angle she came at the problem from, the warding around the Goblet was far too complex and strong for her to breach given her current assets. Before she could drop them, the entire school would be awake and the professors on her position.

An entirely unacceptable result.

She could handle being caught, but not if the Goblet survived.

It was beginning to look to her like the infernal artifact may just survive yet another encounter with the Clan.

Her hand curled into a claw, though she didn't notice it, and tightened against the table until her nails actually gouged lines in the wooden surface.

"Damn, Wens." Xander said from behind her, causing her heart to spike for an instant, though she didn't show it. "You ok?"

"I am fine." She said stonily.

"Right," He reached over her shoulder, wrapping his hand around hers, and gently lifting it clear of the table. "You look it."

She closed her eyes, relaxing as she felt his hand on hers. "I'm fine."

Xander nodded, letting her hand go as he circled around the table and dropped into a chair. "Care to let me in on the secret yet?"

"There is no secret. Just a task that I appear to be unable to complete." She sighed bitterly.

"You? Damn, must be a doozy." He said with an easy smile. "You going to share?"

She looked around them surreptitiously, noting that there was no one within range of earshot, and then sighed again. "I have been attempting to find a way through the wards around the Goblet."

Xander's eyes widened, but he didn't seem too surprised. "Want a shot at it, huh?"

She fixed a gaze on him, trying to determine what he knew and how.

"It's not that hard to work out," He shrugged, "You made it pretty clear that the Addamses didn't take much to the thing."

"It is a vile artifact." She muttered, but nodded finally. "Yes, I want a shot at it."

"So what's the issue?"

"The wards. They're too good, I can't get through them." She confessed, angry at her own failure.

Xander didn't say anything, just nodding in understanding. "Makes sense. It's probably pretty valuable."

"More so than anyone realizes." Wednesday admitted softly. "The Ministry today has no clue what they could use that Goblet to do to the people under their governance."

"I'm guessing that's a good thing…" Xander stated, not really making into a question.

"A very good thing." She answered anyway.

He nodded, "Alright. Can't go through the wards… they cover a full bubble? Can we come in from above, or below?"

"No, they're fully encompassing."

"No easy answers I guess." Xander half smiled, knowing that she would have found a way if it were that easy. "Alright. What about when the Tri-Wiz is over?"

"What?" Wednesday looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"

"They have to move that sucker, right?" Xander suggested, "Are the wards mobile?"

She considered that for a long moment, "No… No they are not. It will be guarded, however."

Xander nodded, "Yeah, Aurors probably. Distraction?"

Wednesday nodded slowly, "Perhaps."

"What are you thinking to take it out?" Xander asked.

"I know a spell, it will break the enchantments and crack the Goblet." Wednesday confessed.

"Ok. So we fake them out, give you a shot at the goblet." Xander said, "But since you're going to make a very noticeable mark on that thing, we better not get caught."

"We?"

He smiled, "You think I'd pick the law over you?"

Wednesday couldn't help it, she blushed and couldn't meet his eyes.

* * *

The week ran through quickly, with the final task planned for Sunday the excitement in the school was palpable as the weekend hit. For a certain small group, though, Saturday was exciting for a different reason and they took advantage of the distraction offered by Xander's mirror on the world.

There were new additions this time, however, invited by Wednesday of all people. Xander was surprised, but he wasn't going to question her. It's not like she made requests or suggestions often, so when she did he paid attention.

So when, on Saturday morning, Fleur Delacour and Luna Lovegood arrived in Wednesday's wake Xander didn't ask any questions, he just smiled and invited them into the door he'd built.

Luna looked around, eyes wide and dreamy as she took in the room he'd outfitted as a personal theatre. "Oh my, this looks just like the muggle rooms Daddy and I use for research."

Xander blinked, looking around, until he caught eyes with Hermione.

"Research?" Hermione asked, pinching her nose as if she didn't really want to know.

Luna nodded, "Muggles know about some of the most incredible creatures."

Hermione slumped, "That explains so much."

"You think it does." Wednesday answered dryly, rolling her eyes.

The rest in the room looked mostly confused, unable to follow the conversation in its entirety, though Harry and Padma both had varying levels of comprehension.

"Anyway…" Xander said, shaking his head. "Welcome to Harris Theatres… You online, Wills?"

"I'm here." Willow's voice came from the large mirror mounted at the far end of the room. "How was your week, everyone?"

"We're all good here, Wills. I think everyone is looking forward to the end of term, though." Xander answered and everyone murmured an agreement.

"Impressive. Protean charm on the mirror?" Fleur asked from where she had taken a seat in the second row.

"Yup." Willow nodded, appearing on the mirror as the image turned to show her. "Xander's idea."

"Very advanced work," She said, "Was this entirely your work, Alexander?"

Xander shrugged, "Naw. I charmed the mirror on this side, Willow handled the other one."

"It was mostly Sirius." Willow confessed before brightening in a perky manner, "But I helped."

"Very nice." Fleur said with a tip of her head.

"Thanks." Xander said, "Anyway, on to the movies. Wills, what's your pick?"

"LadyHawke," She smirked at him.

Xander groaned.

"I can pick anything I want, buster, so be happy I didn't get a real 'chick flick' just to torment you." She challenged.

Xander sighed, but held up his hands. "Alright, alright. I get the point. LadyHawke sounds fine."

Honestly, Xander didn't mind the movie much. It has as much action and stuff in it as romance, but protesting kept Willow from trying for something much, much, worse.

"I was thinking Predator first," Willow grimaced, "Then LadyHawke and Princess Bride. That way we can wash the mental taste of Xander's pick out of our minds."

"Seconded." Wednesday said, tossing an amused look at Xander.

"Thirded." Hermione smirked.

"Oh great, gang up on me now why don't you?" Xander mock complained.

"You should be so lucky." Wednesday answered as she took her seat in the front.

The twins exchanged amused glances, "That doesn't…"

"Sound so bad."

"To us." They finished in unison.

"You two stay out of this," Xander rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright… let's settle in shall we?"

Willow sighed, but nodded. "Everything's ready here."

"Popcorn's up, Butterbeer?" Xander asked, looking around.

"Check. New case, just for today." One of the twins answered.

"Cool. Let it roll, Wills." Xander grinned, dropping into a seat between Padma and Wednesday.

They could hear Willow sighing again as the image turned to, going black. "Ok, here we go with Predator…"

The screen flickered, then lit up as the film studio logo appeared and the movie began.

"I love this movie." Xander grinned, settling in for the show.

* * *

Predator went over with a bang, in Xander's opinion anyway. Aside from the requisite sounds of disgust at the skinned people, he got to enjoy the squeals of shock during the slaughter scenes, even had Padma jump on him once when the Pred appeared out of nowhere.

Ron wanted to know where Muggles learned about disillusionment charms, and the twins started making notes on magical armor, which both scared and excited Xander if he were honest about it. He hadn't thought about making sci-fi stuff with magic, he was still kinda focused on catching up to the twentieth century.

Still, it'd be fun to see what the Twins came up with.

LadyHawke was, predictably, a hit with the ladies and went over pretty well with the guys too. Xander, for all his pretence, had yet to see a film with Rutger Hauer in it that didn't have at least some degree of manliness to it so he considered LadyHawke something of a guilty pleasure not to ever be admitted to Willow.

If the tragic love of LadyHawke was a hit, though, the 'Twu Wuv' of Princess Bride had Xander squirming in his seat in short order. It took him twenty minutes to figure out that it was because Fleur was leaking her aura.

He shored up his Occlumency in short order, but a glance around him told him that he was the only one with that defense. The unfocused allure was low key enough that no one else seemed to notice where it was coming from, but the other guys in the room were all gazing at the movie like it was the only important thing in the universe.

He had to twist around and squeeze Fleurs knee to get her attention before she realized what she was doing and stopped, obviously embarrassed.

After that the movie had gone smoothly, and been a pretty decent hit with both sides of the room. Even Wednesday approved of the vengeance of Inigo, though she had little interest in Wesley or Buttercup. Xander loved that about her, she was so different from anyone else he'd ever known. Willow was always all about the love story, Jessie was all about the fight scenes.

Wednesday, however, was always more interested in the strangest stuff and it was fun as hell to try and figure out what was going to ping on her radar, so to speak.

Fun, but not really hard. She also got a kick out of Wesley being tortured, so while he loved her uniqueness, she was predictable. Predictable did not mean she wasn't just a tad scary, mind you. Xander was pretty sure she'd been muttering thoughts on how to build a 'life sucking' machine to try on her brother.

He loved Wednesday, he really did, but there were days that he was very, very glad she lived across the country from him.

Days with names that ended in the letter 'Y' to be specific.

* * *

With the second 'movie afternoon' finished, the moment of relaxation was done for the group and soon they were thrown back into the cranking tension of Hogwarts with the third task coming the next day.

The champions had been led out to overlook the former Quidditch pitch, Cedric and Harry both horrified by the havoc that had been wreaked on the pitch, and met with a proud Ludo Bagman.

"Would anyone care to make any guesses as to the nature of tomorrow's task?"

Viktor Krum just grunted, "Maze."

"Precisely!"

They'd had the rules explained to them then, and were given the basic information they needed to prepare. Harry wished he'd had more time, but he was feeling good all the same. Relaxed from the break earlier, but still feeling the rush he got from his morning workouts, for the first time he could remember, Harry felt like things were falling his way.

Had he said that aloud within earshot of Xander, he'd have received a smack across the back of his head in about a quarter of a second. Without said head slap, unfortunately, Harry went on thinking his optimistic thoughts.

After the briefing broke up, Harry saw Andromeda Tonks waiting for him so he made his way over to her.

"Harry." She said, nodding slightly in his direction. "You're doing well."

He nodded, "Yeah, I think I am."

"Don't get a swelled head." She said with a smirk, "This little game of the Headmaster's is nothing compared to the real world, and while competing on even footing with older students is impressive… they are only students."

Harry swallowed, but nodded.

"That said, I've watched your tasks," She said after watching him for a moment, "You've done very well, and my contacts within the school indicate that you're almost acceptable outside of the tournament as well."

Harry blinked.

Almost?

"Almost?" He managed to ask.

"Yes, almost." She countered sternly. "The Yule ball was nearly disastrous. If not for your friend, you'd have looked like a spoiled child…"

"I can't believe Xander told you that!" Harry hissed, angry.

"I don't know any Xander, though I presume you mean Mr. Harris." She shrugged, "He told me nothing. Don't for a moment think that you aren't being watched, Harry. There are dozens of eyes on you every time you go out in public, a small portion of them report to people I know."

Harry swallowed. "And the rest?"

"You don't want to think about who they report to." She replied with a shrug, then calmly waved her hand. "That said, while a near miss, you cleaned it up adequately so there was no real bleed into the social circles. Even Skeeter didn't have any reason to carve into you, which is good… since she doesn't need a reason."

"I can't believe I'm being watched, I just want to be a normal kid!" He hissed, "This boy who lived stuff is total crap!"

Andromeda snorted, "That's the least of your public face at the moment, Harry."

"What?"

"Harry, you're the heir of the Potter line, acting Regent for the Blacks. You're one of the competitors in the Tri Wizard tournament, and you're the boy who lived. Three of those things are yours by right, the fourth…" She shrugged, "We'll see. But two of them are yours by blood. Disgrace those, and you disgrace your family. You were never going to be a 'normal' kid, Harry. It's not in your blood."

Harry seethed for a moment, but finally just grunted slightly and crossed his arms over his chest.

She slapped his arms down and lightly batted the back of his head.

"Don't slouch, don't pout, and stop acting like a child." Andromeda admonished him curtly, shocking Harry out of his anger. "This is the problem. You need to learn that there are some emotions that are for private viewing only. We're in public, here you stand straight, keep your head up, and never ever pout. You may glare, you may cry if the occasion calls for it, but you. Do. Not. Pout."

Harry fell back a step as she punctuated each word with a jab to his chest.

Andromeda sighed, "We'll work on comportment this summer. You also need to improve your social attitude, or you'll cripple your position and hurt your friends' positions."

Something on Harry's face must have caused her to rethink, so she sighed, "I'm getting ahead of myself, Harry. I really only wanted to tell you that you'd done well so far, but there is still much to learn. Most young men in your place know the social arena far better than you, but are lacking in the educational side of things. You're the opposite, which isn't bad… but it does present with some key problems we'll need to tackle this summer, alright?"

Harry nodded jerkily. "Alright…"

"Good." She smiled, "Now, tell me about your study group while we walk."

Harry looked puzzled, but nodded agreeably and followed along as she made her way across the grounds, heading for the lake.

* * *

Andromeda had left him with a great deal to think about, and it all kind of sent Harry's thoughts whirling.

Just when it felt like he might have a handle on one aspect of his life, it always seemed that another would be found lacking. Harry couldn't be angry with Andromeda for pointing it out, he'd been told much the same by Xander, even, almost a year earlier.

No matter what he wished, he had social responsibilities too.

Harry gritted his teeth.

It wasn't that he didn't want to fulfill them, it really wasn't. He didn't know HOW, blast it all.

That said, Andromeda was clear on that, she wasn't disappointed in him… which, for some reason, made him relieved. She was just taking notes on what they'd have to cover come summer.

That would be weird, Harry thought. Someone who was actually going to visit him during the summer.

Even if Andromeda was a bit of a taskmaster, Harry fell asleep thinking that maybe the summer wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

In the morning, the final task began, and with Harry in the point lead he was sent into the maze first. He'd had the previous evening to figure out his plan…

Well, let Hermione figure out my plan, Harry corrected himself with a wry grin.

After Hermione had rattled on about different methods for solving a maze, Harry had elected to use the simplest of them and follow the Right hand rule. It wasn't necessarily the fastest, but combined with some magic and a little fleet of foot movement, it would do he hoped.

He did keep in mind Hermione's warnings that the method only worked if all the walls in the maze were connected, and so was using a spell to track his motions on a piece of paper. If it looked like the inner walls of the maze were disconnected from the outer, he'd have to think of something else.

It didn't take long for Harry to be certain that they weren't, after just a minute or two of following the right hand wall, he was deep in the maze and more than likely within any logical point where they might have disconnected the inner wall.

So, keeping in mind that logic and wizards weren't often companions, Harry upped his pace with a small degree of optimism.

He encountered minor magical beasts regularly, including crups and Hagrid's blast ended screwts, but Defence and Care were his two best classes for a reason, so Harry had no problem blowing through all obstacles right up until he ran face first, almost literally, into a calmly seated Sphinx.

"Whoa." Harry backpedaled, wand coming up.

The creature eyed him regally, raising one eyebrow. "If you wish to pass, you must first answer a riddle. Answer correctly and I will step aside, answer incorrectly and I will attack. You may turn away now, if you wish, and seek another way in."

Harry swallowed, but shook his head. "No. I'll answer."

"Very well…" The Sphinx said with a calm smile before taking a breath and speaking again.

_"First think of the person who lives in disguise,_

_Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies,_

_Next tell me what's always the last thing to mend,_

_The middle of middle and end of the end?_

_And finally give me the sound often heard,_

_During the search for a hard-to-find word._

_Now string them together, and answer me this,_

_Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"_

Harry blinked, thinking wildly for a moment that a Dementor was sort of the end all answer to that list line.

That thought pushed firmly away, however, left him puzzling the rest out.

"I've heard this before…" He murmured, not remembering the answer, but recognizing the play on words. The first line was easy, of course… a Spy. The next… Harry frowned deeply, then suddenly relaxed.

"That's an old one, the answer is a Spider."

The Sphinx eyed him for a long moment, just long enough to make Harry slightly nervous, then nodded. "Correct. You may pass."

Harry bowed slightly, thanked the Sphinx for her time, and hurried on.

As he moved in, he saw red sparks fly from one side of the course, which meant someone was giving up. That buoyed him up a little, so Harry increased his speed.

He and Cedric both burst into the center at nearly the same moment, wands out and both looking a little worse for wear. Harry noted with some amusement that the burns on Cedric's clothing would seem to indicate that he'd had a marginally harder time with Hagrid's screwts than Harry had.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw an Acromantula chasing Cedric and responded without a thought with a cutting curse that slashed past Cedric and into the beast.

Cedric let out a yelp and responded with a stunner in Harry's direction that Harry had to dodge in a hurry.

"No! Behind you!" Harry yelled as he rolled across the ground.

Cedric almost didn't look, but a strange sound caused him to jerk around and let out a yelp of his own as he threw himself to one side, twisting his knee as he fell, his wand slipping away. The Acromantula charged at him, only to be hit by a string of spells from Harry that redirected it's fury in his direction. Cedric tried to get to his feet, but cried out as his knee gave way in his rush and he hit the ground again.

Harry hit the beast with every spell in his repertoire, aside from the explosive ones given the range, but it's size kept it bearing down over him even when it was dead on its feet. He let out a cry as it rumbled over him, and bulldozed him to the ground.

A long moment passed, and Harry realized he was still alive as footsteps approached.

"Harry? You ok?"

"I've been better." Harry laughed painfully from under the beast.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The body of the spider lifted clear and Harry was able to breathe easier as he rolled clear and stumbled to his knees.

"I guess it's yours, Cedric." Harry nodded to the cup. Shaking his head. He was pretty badly bruised, and a foot race wasn't in the cards.

Cedric glanced at it, then shook his head. "Doesn't seem right."

"Go on, take it." Harry snapped, "You win, square shot. I'm not racing you now."

Cedric rubbed his leg, "I'm not winning any footrace myself."

Harry sighed, "It should be yours anyway, you're the Hogwarts Champion."

"You're name came out of the cup too."

"I didn't put it there."

"We'll take it together." Cedric said suddenly. "It'll be a Hogwarts win."

Harry considered it, then nodded, "Fair enough, help me up."

Cedric chuckled, but helped him to his feet and they both limped to the cup. As they both grasped it, Harry felt the sensation of a hook yanking him away from inside his belly, and the world went black.


	105. Chapter 105

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore stiffened as he felt the wards report a portkey leaving the area, for a moment he didn't believe it.

_Who authorized that?_ He thought, stunned. He hadn't made any portkeys, or authorized any that he could remember. Normally that would mean it was practically impossible for this to have happened, however this year the Ministry had insisted on having the ability to make their own portkeys.

Mindful of Harry's safety more than anything else, Dumbledore had refused initially and finally caved just enough to permit Bartimus to create outgoing portkeys. This one had to have been made by him, but he hadn't mentioned it.

_Bartimus had been acting oddly in his final days…_ Albus frowned under his beard, but set the question firmly aside. For now it didn't matter who, but rather what and why. He rose from his seat and moved closer to the hedge maze.

"Alastor." He called calmly.

Moody stumped up in his direction, coming to a stop close enough so they could speak without being overheard. "What is it, Albus?"

"The wards just registered a portkey, check the maze for Harry if you would."

Moody nodded, turn slightly as his eye swiveled crazily. After a long moment he frowned, "Can't find him. The Diggory boy is missing too."

Albus paled.

* * *

The portkey dumped them both on the ground, Harry in a lump and Cedric just barely managing to stay on his knees rather than be sprawled out beside his companion.

"I don't remember anyone say anything about the cup being a portkey, you?" Cedric asked as Harry got up.

Harry shook his head, "No."

"Wands out, you reckon?"

This time Harry nodded grimly, "Yeah."

They both drew their wands, looking carefully around them. They were in a graveyard, of all places, the cooling air of the evening had laid down a light mist, making the place look like something out of a horror film.

Harry shivered. _Like my life isn't horrific enough._

They heard a noise and twisted in that direction just as a rasping voice spoke across the headstones.

"Kill the spare."

Harry winced as a flash of pain stabbed through his scar, the image of a ball of green magic searing itself into his brain. He snapped his wand hand up, a spell on his lips as he heard an incantation from across the field.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Protego Facetus!"

The pyramidal shape of Xander's layered spell surged into being as the green hued spell lashed across the graveyard, firming up just as the killing curse slammed into its side. Harry grunted under the impact, but was shocked to see the facet of titanium do exactly what it had done in their tests against heavy blasting curses. It shattered and slid along the inner Protego shield, redirecting the killing curse along with it.

The spell glanced off, taking shards of titanium with it, and slammed into a headstone a dozen feet behind them in an explosion of destruction.

Cedric gaped at the spell, barely able to believe how close he'd just come to death.

"B… b… bloody hell." He managed to say.

"Snap out of it, Cedric, we don't have time for shock!" Harry growled, drawing his second wand in his off hand, shifting the shield to one side slightly as he fired a Reductor back.

"You stopped a killing curse!" Cedric protested, unbelieving. "That's not even possible!"

"Well we're dead then, and this is heaven." Harry muttered, "Keep a look out for my mum and dad, will ya?"

Cedric crouched down, wand coming up now as instincts kicked in. There hadn't been any return fire, probably because whoever had fired at them was as shocked as he was if he had to guess.

"Someone tried to kill me." Cedric muttered, suddenly frowning, "Who tried to kill me!?"

"Voldemort and Pettigrew," Harry answered tersely, "Do you see them out there?"

Cedric almost went into shock again, "The… d… d… dark lord?"

"Do you see them out there!?"

"N… no." Cedric shook his head clear, peeking around the shield Harry was still holding up.

"Bugger." Harry muttered. "I know I didn't get him with the Reductor."

Cedric stared at the second wand in Harry's hand, "This seems silly, given that you just blocked a killing curse and all, but Wizards can't use two wands at once."

Harry cocked his head and just stared at Cedric for a long moment.

"Right. Sorry." The older boy foundered slightly, completely out of his depth.

International attention, Tri Wizard Tourney, these things he could handle. Death curses from the Dark Lord and boys younger than him who broke the laws of magic were a bit much, quite frankly.

Harry sighed, however, "It's a special wand. I got it from a friend who used it just like this last summer, it's not some boy who lived miracle or anything."

"And the shield?"

"Same friend actually."

Cedric's eyes widened, "That's some friend."

"Yeah, I'm thanking Merlin I met him right about now." Harry admitted, peering around intently. "You still don't see anybody, do you?"

Cedric shook his head, staring about as intently as he could. "No. You think they're gone?"

Harry just snorted.

* * *

"That is impossible!" The homunculus hissed at the portly man who was carrying him.

"Yes my Lord," Peter moaned softly, feeling immensely sorry for himself at the moment.

"How did Potter manage it!?" The detestable little creature that was Lord Voldemort demanded.

"I don't know, my Lord." Peter admitted, "What should I do now?"

"Circle around."

Peter nodded miserably, but obediently began to move around the two boys in the distance, keeping his head low and behind the headstones and mausoleums.

* * *

"Ok," Harry said after another check, "How do we get out of here?"

"Where's the cup?" Cedric asked, casting about, "Maybe it's a two way portkey?"

Harry frowned, "Would you put a two way spell on a trap?"

"Well… no," Cedric admitted, "Stupid, huh?"

Harry shrugged, "Dunno. Let's check it anyway. Wizards are weird."

"Hey!" Cedric objected.

"Trust me, speaking as a muggle raised," Harry said, "Weird is the polite term."

Cedric shot him a dark look, but found the cup. "There it is."

Harry glanced over at where the cup had fallen, just a few feet away, and nodded. "Alright, we'll move over toward it…"

As he turned, however, he moved the shield off of where it was and Cedric's eyes widened as he looked over Harry's shoulder.

"Harry! Behind…!"

Cedric's warning was cut off by a familiar and hated voice calling out, "Stupefy!"

Harry started to twist around, but was too late as the stunner slipped through the gap in his shield and struck him head on. He crumpled in place, wands falling from his hands as his shield spell faded away.

"Now, Wormtail." That same dark voice Cedric had heard the first time spoke up, "Kill the spare."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was just about ready to panic, or as close as he came. Harry was missing, Cedric was missing, and no one seemed to have the slightest clue as to where they were.

The final task was in chaos, the Ministry officials had finally admitted that something was wrong and stepped in to start pulling down the maze. Hagrid, Moody, and others were helping, but Albus knew that Harry wouldn't be found within.

Fleur had been tortured under the Cruciatus, Viktor Krum was still under an unbroken Imperius. The fact that two of the three unforgivables had been used on Hogwarts grounds sent cold chills down the Headmaster's spine.

He glanced over to where Percy Weasley was snapping out panicked orders to the Auror guards the Ministry had assigned to the tournament. He briefly felt sorry for the boy, knowing that Percy was well out of his depth, but had no time for the sentiment.

He was bustling back to his office when Minister Fudge arrived on the scene and zeroed straight in on his position.

_Bugger._ The headmaster cursed mentally, _I have no time for this._

"Albus! What in Merlin's name is going on? I'm hearing reports of a kidnapping, murder, and god knows what else!"

"There's been no murder, Minister," Albus assured the man.

Not as best I can tell, at least. He thought grimly a moment later before taking a breath, "Misters Diggory and Potter are missing, however."

Fudge paled, "Potter? No… The papers will have a field day, you have to get him back!"

"I'm going to my office right now to…"

"Your office!? Blast it, man! Now is not a time for paperwork! Find him!"

"Minister," Albus forced himself to remain calm, even to smile, "I have materials in my office that will help me track Mister Potter."

"Right… well…" Fudge seemed nonplussed, "Carry on then."

"Thank you Minister."

Albus tipped his head slightly, and then marched back to the castle. Only when he was out of site did he hike his robes up slightly and run for his office.

Once there he closed and secured the door before turning to the knickknacks on his shelves, breathing a sigh of relief.

Harry was alive.

A few more moments, however, left him with some deep worries. Wherever the boy was, there were wards in place to prevent tracking. Albus frowned deeply, knowing he could crack them, but uncertain if he could do so in time.

_Ah, Harry. You shave years off my life with every year you spend at Hogwarts,_ The aging headmaster thought fondly despite the seriousness of the situation, even though deep in the back of his mind the prophecy was whispering over and over to him.

_And either must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives._

* * *

"Avada Kedavra!"

Forewarned this time, and not completely stunned to senselessness, Cedric threw himself out of the way of the incoming spell and tumbled to the ground as the green death passed by.

"Wormtail, you imbecile! You missed!"

"I'm sorry, Master…" The second voice simpered, sounding for all the world like one of the first years Cedric caught out after curfew while on his prefect patrols.

Cedric scrambled to his feet and tried to make it to Harry, only to be forced back when he again heard the dreaded incantation.

"Avada Kedavra!"

He threw himself back as the green death exploded into the ground between him and Harry, showing him with dirt and rocks.

"You fool! Don't kill Potter! I need his blood!"

"Sorry Master."

_Well, if they don't want to kill Harry maybe I can use that to my advantage…_ Cedric thought as he clawed his way along the ground back toward Harry, this time trying to stay low and out of sight. He still couldn't see his attackers, but their voices had given him a good idea of their location, so he moved to keep headstones between them as much as he could.

His heart dropped when he heard an incantation from another direction and a wash of excruciating pain sent him convulsing to the ground.

"Crucio!"

Cedric writhed on the ground as the curse held him in its grip, barely able to think past the level of how much pain there was. When the spell ended he wanted nothing more than to lay there and not move again, ever, but in a flash of lucidity he realized that was just what he was courting.

Groaning, Cedric reached out one aching hand and clawed into the dirt as he dragged himself around. There had to be a way out, but all he could think of was the forlorn hope that the cup was still a portkey.

"Kill him already, Wormtail." The raspy voice hissed from behind him.

Cedric forced himself along the ground by the fractions of inches, it seemed. He could feel the eyes of his attackers on him from behind and just tried to stay lucid and mobile.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Cedric tensed as he heard the first sound of the spell, then threw himself with all his force to one side as it was completed. The killing curse exploded into the ground at his side, again showering him with rock and dirt, but he was still alive. Still breathing.

Behind him he could hear the rasping voice berating the whiner again, but now Cedric wasn't listening. He gathered up all his strength and lunged for the cup.

"You fool, Wormtail, can you do nothing right? Finish him!"

"Yes, master." The second voice said.

Cedric could feel the wand bearing down on him as he skidded across the ground, hands outstretched for the cup. It was the greatest feeling in his entire life when he felt the sharp hook of the portkey yanking him away.

A feeling that was killed by the cold realization that he'd just left Harry behind with two murderers, one of whom was possibly the Dark Lord himself.

_I'm sorry, Harry._

* * *

Voldemort screamed in fury as the boy vanished, causing Peter to quake in terror.

"What do we do now, Master?"

"We hurry." The Dark Lord hissed, wanting to kill the fool at his side, but knowing that he needed him. "The boy will bring word to the old fool at Hogwarts and he'll be coming after his precious savior."

"We should leave, Master."

"Fool! This is the place." Voldemort snapped, "It must be here. The bones of the father are here, all our preparations are here, and as much as I despise it, my blood runs from here. Gather up the boy."

Wormtail nodded eagerly, happy not to be cursed, and levitated Harry's unconscious body with a flick of his wand.

They had a great deal to do, and time was now running short.

* * *

When the portkey speared back through Hogwarts Wards, Albus shot up like a bolt of lightning and rushed out to meet it. Only outgoing portkeys should have worked, yet this one came back. His mind was trying to understand why even as he rushed outside to where a crowd was forming.

An Auror was standing over Cedric Diggory as his father held his head up off the ground.

"He's been hit with a Cruciatus." The Auror, Kingsley Shacklbolt announced grimly.

"Who? Who did this to you, Cedric?" Amos demanded.

Cedric looked up at him, "Harry…"

"Harry Potter Crucioed you?" Amos nearly screamed.

The crowd fell silent with an air of shock.

"No!" Cedric rasped out, grabbing his father, "Not Harry. Harry said… his name was Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew?" Amos repeated, "That name is familiar. Does anyone here know a Pettigrew?"

"He means Peter Pettigrew," A voice said calmly.

"Impossible! He's dead!" Fudge blustered, "And an Order of merlin recipient!"

"Harry met him last year," Xander Harris shrugged, "Black was trying to kill Pettigrew for betraying the Potters. Hogwarts wards identified him as Pettigrew."

"We can worry about that later," Albus said, interrupting. "Cedric, where is Harry?"

Cedric shook his head, "Graveyard… somewhere."

He pointed to the cup, "Portkey."

Albus whipped his wand at the cup, casting quickly, and his eye's widened. "Still active. Interesting, whoever charmed this put a lot of effort into it. I'll have its location in a moment, Kingsley, go gather a team."

The tall black Auror nodded, rushing off.

Moody stomped over, "I'll go now."

"Alistair, you can't…"

"It'll take time to get a team, Albus. I'll go, see if I can buy it for you." Moody said gruffly. "Boy could already be dead…"

"No…" Cedric rasped out, "Stunned. They wanted him alive. I tried to get to him, I swear I did…"

The Hufflepuff shuddered from the effects of the curse.

"Couldn't do it." He rasped out, "Killing curses… so close."

"It's alright, my boy, I know you tried." Amos said, trying to quiet him. "Just hold on, the Mediwitch is coming."

"I'm here." Poppy Pomphrey announced, "Everyone clear back and give the boy some room."

Moody stomped over to the cup, "You've got enough to make another portkey, Albus. I'll go on ahead, make sure the boy lives through this."

Dumbledore swallowed, but nodded. "Very well. Be careful."

Moody snorted, "Constant Vigilance, Albus."

He grabbed the cup and was pulled away as Dumbledore nodded.

"Constant Vigilance, my friend." He said, before getting ready to make another port key of his own.

* * *

Harry woke to the sound and sensation of an enervate passing through him, and he blinked slowly as he looked around.

"Wormtail." He hissed, angry to see the traitor again. Especially without his wand in his hand.

Pettigrew didn't look at him, just kept his eyes down and went about what he was doing.

"Welcome back, Potter." A raspy voice attracted Harry's attention, bringing his eyes down to see an ugly infantlike creature below him. "You surprised me today, Harry. How did you block the killing curse yet again?"

Harry looked away, remaining silent.

"Very well, I will learn your secrets, Harry." The dark lord said, sounding almost amiable, charming even, "One way or the other."

"We're almost ready, Master."

"Good, we have to hurry, but make NO mistakes!"

"Yes Master."

The sound of a portkey arriving shocked them both, causing Pettigrew to fumble for his wand. As he brought it up, he recognized the arrival.

"Oh it's you."

Mad Eye Moody stomped into view, causing Harry to hope for a moment, until the battle scarred former Auror knelt before the homunculus of the Dark Lord.

"You shouldn't be here." Voldemort hissed.

"I apologize, My Lord." Moody said, "When the boy came back the Headmaster began preparing a rescue team."

"How much time do I have?"

"Minutes. Fifteen, perhaps twenty. There weren't enough Aurors on hand to mount a credible force, but the Old Man could decide to come ahead of schedule."

"What did the boy say?"

"He said he saw the rat, and that you wanted the boy alive. I think you have time."

"Good." Voldemort hissed, "very good."

"Traitor!" Harry growled.

Moody glanced in his direction, then ignored the boy.

"Why was the portkey a two way charm?" Voldemort hissed.

Moody shook his head, "My father must have better resisted the Imperious than I thought."

"Contrary to the end." The Dark Lord hissed, nodding. "I suppose it isn't a surprise. His son turned out to be my best servant, I suppose that the Father would have qualities of his own."

"My father was a fool and a bastard," Moody growled, "but he was anything but weak of will or magic."

"Very well. Rise, my servant. You will be here to witness my rebirth after all."

"It is an honor, My Lord."

Harry swallowed as the trio turned back to face him.

"Let us begin…" Voldemort hissed."

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"


	106. Chapter 106

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"I will give him this much," Wednesday drawled idly, sounding bored, "Potter knows how to stir up a crowd."

Xander rolled his eyes, a half smirk on his face, eyeing the chaos that was visible on his copy of the Marauders map. "This is just him stumbling around blindly, if he ever learns to do it intentionally I fear for the world."

"Indeed."

"Are you two quite finished!?" Hermione snapped at them, eyes wet with unshed tears. "Harry's out there somewhere with murderers and kidnappers!"

"Much like every year so far," Wednesday replied evenly. "It's hardly a new occurrence."

Hermione glared at her, mouth open, but words seemed to fail the bushy haired girl just then. Ron appeared at her side, shooting Xander and Wednesday dark glares as he tried to lead Hermione away from them.

"He'll be fine, Mione," Ron told her, "Moody's a legend, and he's gone after him, right?"

Hermione sniffed, "I hope you're right."

Xander frowned, blinking as he stared at his map, "I'm not so sure he is."

Ron glared at him, "Just shut up! Harry will be fine!"

"Not about that, about Moody." Xander growled, eyes not leaving the map. "He's supposed to be off where Harry is, right?"

"Right, what of it?"

"Then why is he in his office?" Xander pointed at the map.

The three others frowned, leaning in, and clearly read 'Alistair Moody' on the map where the DADA professor's office was.

"This," Wednesday said with finality, "Does not bode well."

"Ya think?" Xander asked dryly.

"Where'd you get a map?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"I made it."

"You sure it's any good?"

Xander shot him a scowl, "It's as good as Harry's."

"Blimey." Ron said quietly, looking lost for a moment. "What do we do?"

"I don't know about you lot," Xander said, "But I'm going to Moody's Office. If Scarface is pulling a Lockhart, I say we string him up over the goblet of fire and light the damned thing."

With those words Xander set out back to the school, Wednesday, Hermione, and Ron determinedly following behind.

* * *

"Untie him."

The snake like visage of the reborn Dark Lord sneered slightly as he casually buttoned the robe handed to him by Pettigrew. The rat faced man simpered, glancing about like his animal form might, before approaching where Harry was bound.

Harry glared at Peter with contempt as the man's silver hand flexed and deftly undid the ropes. Peter finished and stepped back as Voldemort retrieved his wand from where it had been placed on the ground. He appeared ready to say something, then seemed to reconsider before turning to Moody.

"How much time do we have, Bartimus?"

Harry was confused when Moody responded, "No more than minutes, My Lord."

"I suppose we'll have to end this quickly, then." Voldemort shrugged, "Pity. I wanted to make an example of him in front of my followers."

"It will be their loss, My Lord."

"Indeed." Voldemort smirked, idly lifting his wand in Harry's direction as his face and voice cooled. "Now, Potter, your time is come."

Harry tensed.

"Avada Kedavra."

As the first sound of the spell escaped the Dark Lord's lips, Harry charged. He hit Pettigrew low, driving the air from the rat faced man's lungs, and drove them both to the ground. Harry scrambled with Pettigrew as the death curse destroyed the gravestone behind him.

"Imbecile!" Voldemort snarled, his anger rising at yet again missing Potter. "Avada Kedavra!"

* * *

"Kingsley, Good," Albus said as the dark Auror arrived with a half dozen others in tow, "Are you prepared?"

"We are."

Albus nodded, noting that a couple of the Aurors looked nervous, but willing and eager all the same. His gaze fell on the youngest, "Ah Nymphadora, I see you've passed your training."

She lost her nervous look as she scowled back at the Headmaster, "Yes, just a few months ago."

"Fabulous. I've prepared a portkey, but be ready. There's no telling what we'll find when we arrive."

The Aurors all nodded determinedly, arraying around him in a semi-circle as Albus prepared the old sock for activation.

"PROFESSOR!" A voice screamed from down the hall, startling them.

They turned to see a student running up.

"Ah, Mr. Harris, I'm afraid we're a little busy. Whatever is the matter will have to wait."

"Oh hell no." Xander slashed his hand, cutting Albus off. "You need to see this."

Albus raised an eyebrow, quite used to students feeling that their concerns were the only ones of import, yet couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't one of those cases. "Indeed?"

"Now." The young man said firmly, with all the weight of an order. Under other circumstances, Albus would have been amused.

"We're preparing to…"

"Go rescue Harry, yeah I get it." Xander told him, "This is related."

"Oh? Very well, show me." Albus ordered.

Xander jerked his head down the hall and took off at a jog, forcing them all to rush to catch up.

"Sir, why are we chasing a student when Potter is in trouble?" Kingsley demanded.

"A feeling, Kingsley. Just a feeling."

Xander led them to the DADA office, causing a chill to run down Albus' spine as he entered to see Poppy leaning over a rather worse for wear Alistair Moody.

"When did he return?" Albus demanded.

"Sir," Xander attracted his attention again, shaking his head, "Best we can tell, he never left."

"He's been dosed with sleeping drought, Albus," Poppy said, "For a while. He's dehydrated, his muscles are atrophied, and he has bed sores you don't get in a few hours. He's been in that trunk in the corner for weeks at least, maybe months."

Albus paled, "Then who did I send to help Harry?"

He jerked around, "we have to go now! Be aware, if we find Alistair Moody when we arrive, it is an imposter. Act accordingly!"

The Aurors nodded quickly as they reached out for the sock in Albus' hand. In a flash they were gone, leaving Poppy with Moody and the Students.

"I'll need help getting him to the infirmary."

"We've got you covered, Ma'am." Xander said, glancing around at the others, who all nodded.

* * *

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry jerked sideways, fingers hooked into claws that pulled Pettigrew up and over as he rolled. There was a green flash of the killing curse, and Harry felt the rat go suddenly limp.

He swallowed hard, teeth bared, and yanked his wand from where Pettigrew had tucked it into his robes. Then he kicked free of the body of his parent's betrayer and rolled behind a gravestone.

"Blasted pest!" Voldemort hissed, "Circle around, Barty. We'll finish him and be gone from here."

"With pleasure, my lord." The one legged man said, stomping clumsily around in the soft soil of the graveyard.

Harry took a moment to breath, listening to the sounds around him, and decided to take out Moody first. He waited, trying to judge the right moment, then dove clear of the cover he had, wand leading the way.

"Reductor!" He called, sending the blasting curse on its way ahead of him, forcing Moody to throw up a shield in a hurry.

He followed it with a string of curses, the sorts he'd send after Xander when he needed to take down his shields, and kept those lessons in mind as he kept on the move.

Harry heard Moody curse, the older man unable to mount a counter attack to Harry's barrage, and he prepared to press the assault when he heard that hated voice from his right side.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry threw himself down, the curse passing over his head, and rolled behind another gravestone as Moody dropped his shield and loosed a barrage of his own.

Marble splinters were raining down around him, some with enough force to draw blood from Harry's face and neck, but he stayed in place and tried desperately to think of another move.

"It's the end, Potter." Voldemort hissed, "You have no exit now."

"You said that before!" Harry called back, "By my count I'm only outnumbered two to one now, instead of three to one!"

"As if the loss of that fool matters," Voldemort replied disdainfully. "Come out, little Harry… or are you going to die like your father, on your knees and begging for your life?"

"LIAR!"

Voldemort chuckled easily, "Are you so sure? He and your mudblood mother died pitifully, begging me to spare them."

Harry shook his head, "My Mother died telling you to kill her, just spare ME."

That set the Dark Lord back, his wand dipped as he demanded, "How did you know that!?"

Harry took a shot, jumping up to his feet as his wand settled on the Dark Lord, "Because I. WAS. THERE! BOMBARDA!"

Voldemort's eyes widened more in shock than fear as the lethal spell bore down on him, he threw up an Imprimis shield instinctively, but it was blown apart under the intense force. The blast lifted the Dark Lord off the ground, throwing him back across the graveyard.

"Master!" Moody yelled, stomping as fast as he could in the soft earth after his fallen lord.

Harry turned his wand on the distracted man, unleashing a rain of hexes and curses that sent him to the ground, scrambling for cover.

"Damn you, Potter!" He yelled from behind the stones. "You'll pay! I swear you'll pay!"

"You sound just like Draco, Moody! Whining about your precious Dark Lord and cursing my name!" Harry said between spells, "Well so be it! When you've got the balls to collect, I'll be waiting!"

"I believe, I'll collect NOW, Potter."

Harry blinked, eyes turning to see the red glowing eyes of the Dark Lord glaring at him from so much closer than he would have believed possible.

_How did he get up so fast?_ Harry managed to think as the Dark Lord's wand snapped in his direction.

"Avada Kedavra." The Dark Lord hissed, wand so close Harry could see the green glow as the spell charged.

He couldn't dodge that fast, Harry knew, but he tensed to throw himself aside anyway.

"Leviosa!"

A large marble headstone pulled itself from the earth and leapt between Harry and the curse, exploding to shards as the killing curse destroyed it. Harry dove to the right, landing in a roll, and took cover behind another stone with his heart beating in his ears.

There was a long silence as no one seemed to move, only his heart thudding kept him company in the darkness of the graves.

Then he heard the furious voice of Voldemort.

"Dumbledore!"

"Hello Tom," The comforting voice of the headmaster rolled easily across the cemetery, "You're looking fitter than the last time we met."

"I'm back, Old Man," Voldemort sneered, an impressive look on a face as inhuman as his. "Your stay of execution has finally come to an end."

"I have a few more years left before I go on to my next adventure, Tom," Albus said serenely as the Aurors behind him fanned out. "Tell me, who did you have impersonating Alistair?"

"Finally worked that out, did you?" The snake faced man smirked, "Only took you until it was far too late. You're slipping, Albus."

Albus smiled serenely, "I suppose I am. I must compliment your man on his acting, he had me completely fooled. Ironic that he was discovered by children who never even met the real Moody."

"Pah!" Voldemort spat, annoyed at the elder man's unshakeable calm. "Enough of this! Crucio!"

Dumbledore calmly flicked another headstone into the spell's path, and the cemetery erupted into spellfire.

Harry stayed low, watching as the Dark Lord easily held off an entire squad of Aurors with casual slicks of his wand while keeping up enough pressure to force Albus Dumbledore to the defense. It was an amazing bit of dueling, Harry had to admit. Then the man Harry had believed to be Moody, but who apparently wasn't, waded into the battle with a string of curses that rained down on one single Auror, dropping them in their tracks.

Harry watched as he turned his focus to another, but decided that wasn't going to do, and rose up.

"Difindo Ossi! Reductor! Ossi Fragier!"

The three spell combo rained down on 'Moody', surprising the man. He managed to react, though, and threw up a shield to block the first two with ease. Harry's redactor shattered the shield, however, and the Bone Fragmenter caught his wand arm with a sickening series of cracks that caused a spray of blood to erupt from the small holes in his flesh through which bone now peeked.

He went down to one knee, cradling his arm, "Master!"

Voldemort spared him a glance, then seemed to ignore him for a moment before fighting his way back to the kneeling man and grabbing his shoulder.

"I should leave you to die, fool." The snake faced man hissed, blocking the Aurors curses.

"I'm Sorry, Master…"

Voldemort looked up as Dumbledore snapped his wand back, a whip of flames erupting from the tip, then vanished in a crack just as Albus snapped it forward, scoring a deep burn through the very ground he'd been standing on.

For a long moment no one said anything as the last echoes of the apparition sound vanished, then Albus stepped forward.

"Harry?"

"I'm here." Harry stepped out, leaning on a gravestone.

"What happened?" Tonks muttered, looking around with a stunned expression.

Harry nudged the body of Peter Pettigrew over with his foot, "This piece of crap helped the Dark Lord return."

She stared at him, paling remarkably, "Th… that was?"

"Yeah. Right, Sir?" Harry looked at Dumbledore.

The Headmaster sighed, "Yes Harry, as you well know, that was the Dark Lord."

"He used my blood to come back." Harry said dully, cradling his arm as it began to ache. He then looked around, "Where's Cedric!?"

"Calmly, Harry. Mr. Diggory was forced to use the return portkey when you were stunned, Peter was trying to kill him."

Harry sighed, "Thank God. He's ok?"

"He will be fine." Albus said, levitating Peter's body with a flick of his wand. "Come. Back to Hogwarts, Harry, it's been a long day."

Harry snorted.

The Headmaster was fond of understatements, apparently.

* * *

When the portkey deposited the Headmaster, Aurors, Harry, AND a dead body on the grounds of the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch the initial reaction of the crowd was decidedly mixed. The largest portion were relieved to see everyone back, though they were quite concerned to see one of the Aurors being held up by two of his colleagues. Another portion were still thinking about Amos Diggory screaming 'Harry Potter Crucioed You?', these people were angrily murmuring when they saw that Harry wasn't in shackles.

The smallest portion of the crowd, however, proved to be the most vocal. These people were close enough to recognize a dead body when they saw it, and they freaked out. Their screaming and shock was well on its way to kicking off a mini riot when Minister Fudge elbowed his way through the group and made his way up to Dumbledore.

"Got him back, then? Good, good. None the worse for wear, my boy?" He asked, smiling at Harry. "So what happened then? Who did this? I'll see to it that the full force of the Ministry is brought down on him I will!"

"Minister, maybe we should speak of this in private." Albus said quietly.

"Nonsense! These people have a right to know!" Fudge blustered.

Kingsley Shacklbolt stepped quietly up to him, "Sir, You don't want this getting out yet. Not until you work out a plan to deal with it."

Minister Fudge glared at the Auror for a long moment, then rolled his eyes, "Fine. Your office, Albus?"

Dumbledore nodded, "First the infirmary, I think."

Fudge glanced at the injured Auror and then at Harry, "Ah right, yes of course."

The group pushed through the crowd, heading back to the school, and up toward the infirmary level. Harry was surprised to find Hermione, Ron, Xander, and Wednesday already there while Mad Eye Moody was laid out on a bed against the far wall.

The Headmaster must have caught him eyeing the former Auror, "I assure you, Harry, that whoever it was that attacked you was not Alistair Moody. Apparently the real Moody has been held hostage for quite some time in a trunk in his office."

Fudge stared, not blinking, "Scandalous."

"Bartimus." Harry said.

Everyone looked at him while Poppy and two of the Aurors levitated the injured man onto a bed.

"Excuse me, Harry?" Albus asked, confused.

"He called him Bartimus. The fake moody, that's what V…" Harry glanced at the others, "The Dark Lord called him."

"Dark Lord!?" Fudge squeaked.

Albus sighed, "please, Nymphadora, make sure no one is listening in?"

"Right." Tonks said, glaring at her former headmaster for his use of her actual name, but not saying anything because the situation was too tense as it was. She whipped out her wand and cast a few privacy spells before glancing over at the children, "Headmaster?"

He followed her eyes, and sighed, "Would I be terribly mistake to believe that you intend to tell everyone here the whole story no matter what I say, Harry?"

Harry looked at his friends, "Maybe not the whole story, but yeah I'm telling them."

Dumbledore nodded, "Very well… Minister? Yes, the Dark Lord."

"He's dead!"

"No longer, I am afraid."

"That's not possible, Albus… it…. It just can't be…" The Minister stuttered out.

"Sir," Kingsley spoke up, "I can't swear that whatever that was, it was the Dark Lord…"

Albus shot him an annoyed look while the Minister obviously was overjoyed to have anything to grasp at. "There, you see?"

"But if it wasn't," Kinsley continued, "We still faced off against one Wizard who was able to easily hold off an entire squad of Aurors while he was dueling Albus Dumbledore. And, let me be frank, Minister… that's very nearly as bad as the Dark Lord returning. Especially when you consider he kidnapped the Boy Who Lived for some sort of Dark Ritual."

"Ah… yes." Fudge drooped.

"It was the Dark Lord." Harry said firmly, "Pettigrew was helping him."

Fudge looked at the boy in annoyance, but didn't pay him further mind. "We'll have to keep this quiet. Can't have a panic on our hands, Albus. Kingsley, this is top secret, understand?"

"Yes Minister."

"That means NO REPORT!" Fudge blustered.

Kingsley blinked, "But Sir…"

"I said No Report, Kingsley. I don't want this leaking out. We'll have a public outcry, and I won't have it."

"I'll report orally only, to Madame Bones."

"Are you deaf, or just stupid, Auror? I said no report and I meant it."

"Sir, that's completely against procedure… and illegal…"

"I am the Minister, I decide what's legal!"

Albus raised an eyebrow, "Now Minister, that's not…"

"Don't you start! This was all your fault," Fudge was on a roll now, and seemed to have forgotten who he was speaking to, "How could you not know you had an imposter in your school!?"

"Minister Fudge…"

"No." Fudge said, backing away, "No report, Kingsley. Or I'll have you thrown in Azkaban!"

The Minister turned and rushed out before anyone could say anything more.

"That didn't go so well." Kingsley said dryly.

"No, it did not." Albus sighed.

"Sir?" One of the Junior Aurors spoke up, looking more than a little fearful and extremely confused. "What do we do?"

Kingsley looked over at him firmly, "You say nothing. None of you. This is officially over your paygrade. It'll be handled above your heads…"

He glanced at Albus, not saying the rest, but adamantly wishing that it would be handle above his own as well.

_I should be so lucky._


	107. Chapter 107

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

After the excitement died down Xander shook his head and moved over to where Harry was laying down. "You dead, mate?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Not yet. Close call this time."

"You need a full time keeper, dude." Xander chuckled, shaking his head. "So, Moldy again, huh?"

Harry nodded, "He's back."

"Wasn't he back like four years ago?" Xander shrugged.

"I mean he's got a body now."

"No more hitchhiking then, huh? Well I guess it had to happen." Xander said, "Any clue how come he didn't off it properly the first time?"

Harry sighed, "no idea."

"Now that sucks."

"You have no idea, mate." Harry told him glumly.

"Buck up, you'll get through it."

"I wish I were so sure."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Xander asked with a smirk.

"Xander!" Hermione slapped him on the shoulder, "Don't be a jerk!"

"But it comes so natural to him," Ron muttered, rolling his eyes.

"It's alright, Hermione." Harry said, holding up a hand. "He's just joking."

"Well it's not funny." The bushy haired girl crossed her arms in a mild huff.

Xander shrugged, "You want he should laugh or cry? I can make him do either."

"Cry."

Everyone slowly turned to look at Wednesday, who merely raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Right." Xander said slowly, "and on that note I think it's time Wens and I cut out. Harry, way to dodge another AK dude. Herms, lighten up. He's alive. Ron… whatever."

He waved in their general direction as he crossed over to Wednesday and offered her his arm. She considered for a moment, then took it with a nod and they walked out together.

"You two really need to reconsider your taste in friends." Ron told Harry and Hermione dryly. "Not all there, that one."

Harry looked at Hermione, who looked back at him and shrugged.

"I can't really argue with the second part." She said, "But if I were to use sanity as a basis for making friends I **know** I wouldn't be hanging out with the two of you."

"Oy!" Ron objected as Harry started to laugh.

"Honestly Ron, do you really want to start comparing issues?" She rolled her eyes.

"I don't have issues!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other incredulously for a moment, then both started shaking their heads and laughing.

"What? I don't!"

* * *

Xander was wheezing as he tried to recover from laughing, "Cry? Really, Wens?"

She merely shrugged lightly, "It would have been entertaining."

"Oh lord, remind me to never count on you to cheer me up if I'm depressed." Xander laughed, "but when it's about someone else, you're freaking hilarious!"

She stared at him blankly for a long moment until he recovered enough that he didn't appear to be in need of assistance she had no intention of offering.

"The tournament is over." She said then, starting to walk down the hall again.

Xander jogged quickly to catch up, "Right. They'll be moving the cup then."

Wednesday nodded. "Are you still willing to help?"

"We've got a plan, we stick to it." Xander confirmed.

She walked in silence for a long moment before speaking again. "Xander?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Xander nodded, "No problem."

* * *

Kingsley Shacklbolt was not having what one might charitably call a good day. The Dark Lord alone would have seen to that, and any day dealing with the Minister was stained to begin with, so combining the two was well and truly on the path to giving him a terminal migraine.

He took a breath outside his superiors office and stepped inside.

Madame Bones glanced up from her desk, one eyebrow raised. "Yes, Kingsley? I presume this is about the Potter kidnapping?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"He was recovered, I hope?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Amelia frowned, cocking her head to one side. "Well? Out with it, man. What happened?"

"I'm not at liberty to report, Ma'am."

That brought her up short.

"Not at liberty to…?" Amelia blinked, frowning. She reached across her desk and keyed in the privacy wards, "This conversation is now off the record, Kingsley. What in the name of Merlin are you talking about?"

Kingsley winced, "I'm not at liberty to report ma'am."

Amelia stared at him for a long moment, considering his words carefully. Not at liberty to report. There weren't many people who could order him not to report, In fact…

"Auror Shacklbolt, I order you to report on what happened this evening."

"I'm not at liberty to report ma'am," He told her again, sweating slightly.

She stared at him for a long moment, then turned off the warding. "Get out of my office, Auror."

"Yes Ma'am!"

She scowled as he left, considering what he'd said without words. Not many people could order an Auror of Shacklbolts ranking to withhold a report. Three people, to be precise. His direct supervisor, Head Auror Scrimgeour, Herself, and Minister Fudge.

She was fairly damned certain she hadn't given that order, though she'd be examining her mind for signs of Obliviation just in case. Scrimgeour s orders would have been countermanded by her direct order, which just left one.

_What is that imbecile playing at now?_

* * *

The Unspeakables arrived in the middle of the night.

Much as they had ghosted the Goblet into Hogwarts, they were now preparing to make it once more vanish to the depths of the department of mysteries where it had rested since the last tournament held. Four of them took down the protective wards while two more stood watch, their heavy robes and charmed hoods hiding their identities in case anyone was up at this time.

Unknown to them, two people were indeed awake and watching, though not close enough to be seen or detected. The ancient wardlines of Hogwarts herself fed every motion of the four, including their identities, to the duo who were waiting in the wings.

"I hope they take the direct route." Xander sighed softly.

"They will. Even they cannot transport out magically from within the wards." Wednesday replied calmly, confidently.

She didn't want to admit that they may just surprise her. They had, however, walked in via the most direct route and so it was most likely that they would leave the same way.

"They're moving." She said, eyes on the map held between them.

"Right. Hey boy," Xander glanced down at the pup walking along beside him. "You ready?"

The wolf cub only growled softly in response, as if knowing that a bark would be a bad idea.

"Alright," Xander flicked his Ollivander wand at the pup, changing its appearance from wolf to cat. "Show time."

The pup looked at itself, growled again from disgust at its appearance, but dutifully ran off. Xander glanced at Wednesday and nodded before he split off from her and headed down another hall. Wednesday remained in place for a moment, gently rubbing Odin's beak, then she and her raven vanished into the shadows themselves.

The six Unspeakables, unaware of the surveillance or the intent aimed in their direction finished up their ward work and carefully levitated the Goblet between four of them before heading for Hogwarts gates.

They only made it to a branching corridor, however, when there was an unholy yowling and one of the bearers of the Goblet went down in a sprawl as he tripped over something.

The Goblet, having lost its stable levitation, hit the ground and clanged along the stone floor in what they would have recognized as an unnatural motion if they hadn't been looking to their cursing comrade.

"What happened?" The leader hissed, annoyed beyond most tolerances.

"Filch's damned cat!" The one on the ground hissed, holding his ankle as he pointed with his free hand.

They turned to see a feline form vanish around the corner.

"I always hated that damned cat."

"Join the club." The leader muttered, looking around. "Where's the damn cup?"

"Over here." Another said, walking over to the large gold goblet. He heaved it upright and waved the others in, "Come on, let's be done here before someone comes to see what that noise was all about."

"Right." The leader said, flicking his wand at the heavy golden goblet.

Four of them lifted it into the air again, and the group moved on with more speed to their step as they left the school. Once outside the wards the group circled the cup and touched a piece of rope before vanishing into the cool Scottish night.

In another section of the school two figures met, stepping from the shadows with surprising stealth for their age.

"Did you get it?" Xander asked Wednesday.

The Addams scion nodded simply. "I timed the spell, six hours should give them enough time to get it back into storage. With luck, by the time they realize what has happened, another hundred years will have passed."

"Excellent!" Xander smiled, lifting his hand up vertically.

Wednesday looked at it for a long moment as the smile slowly faded from his face, then she finally raised a single eyebrow as she cocked her head and looked at him.

"Oh come on, you're not going to leave me hanging are you?" He whined.

Wednesday considered for a moment, then sighed and slumped slightly before reluctantly lifting her own hand to press it lightly against his in a 'high five'.

The grin returned instantly and Xander wrapped his arm around her as they walked down the hall, "Someday, Wens, I'll convert you to my way of thinking."

"Not even you would be that cruel." She muttered, nonetheless leaning into him as they walked.

Around their feet a cat ran and jumped in oddly doglike patterns, hissing and growling as it tried to get their attention.

* * *

"Harry!"

The next morning, at breakfast, Harry was startled to hear his name called from across the great hall and even more startled to see Cedric pushing people aside as he crossed the hall to meet him.

"Bloody hell, Harry, are you alright?" Cedric asked, breathless as he arrived.

Harry gave him a wan half smile and shrugged, "Been better, been worse. I'm glad you got out, mate."

"Harry, I left you." Cedric shook his head, "I'll never be able to forgive myself for that."

"Cedric, you were facing the Dark Lord himself and a Death Eater." Harry said, "And they were firing unforgivables. There's nothing to forgive, I'm just glad you made it out alive, mate. If you hadn't, I'd probably be dead because no one would have come to save my arse."

"I should have done more."

Harry shook his head, smiling slightly, "Gryffindors Forward, mate… but it took a Puff to bring me back in one piece."

Harry held out his hand, leaving Cedric looking uncertain for a moment before he took it with a smile.

"This Puff stands with you, Potter." He said firmly, then grinned, "And not just because I saw you put up a shield that stopped a blooding killing curse!"

Harry laughed, "Not my shield, Mate. That was all…"

He glanced over to where Xander was watching and was surprised for a moment when the other boy shook his head. Of course only a little surprised, Harry didn't love his own fame so it didn't seem strange to him that Xander might want to avoid it as well.

"… A friend's work." He finished, eyes coming back to Cedric.

"As I said in the cemetery, Harry, that's some friend."

"I've found since I came back to the Wizarding world that I need all the friends I can get." Harry told Cedric ruefully.

Cedric laughed, "You have one more."

"Thanks mate, that means a lot." Harry said quietly, yet sincerely.

There was a momentary pause before Harry glanced over at the food laden tables and nodded in the direction of the Gryffindor section. "I don't know about you, Ced, but I'm starving."

Cedric laughed, "I've eaten, so don't mind me. I just had to come over, Harry. You're sure you're ok?"

"Do you really think Poppy would let me out if I weren't?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes.

"Fair point." Cedric nodded, "Alright. I'll see you later then?"

"Later." Harry confirmed before they broke apart and he headed for his normal seat.

He didn't know it, but even before he started to eat the whole hall was murmuring about the encounter between the two and many darker rumors were put to rest for good.

Across the hall, at the Slytherin table, Xander was tiredly eating his own meal and didn't really notice any of the goings on around him. Not really surprising if one considered that he had been up most of the previous night pranking the ever living hell out of the British Ministry for Magic and it's Department of Mysteries.

For all that, though, Xander was feeling exhilarated and his mind was looking forward, blearily forward but forward none the less. The school year was wrapping up and shortly he'd be back in the States, which meant back with Will and Jessie and back to his personal projects.

After four years of magical schooling, Xander had come to the conclusion that most everything taught at Hogwarts was useless tripe. Useless, that was, until one considered that it provided a magical base for him to build on. Transfiguration class was spent turning one thing into another, usually rote lessons he would never again repeat in his lifetime if he had any say in things, but for all that the concepts were what was important.

The world wasn't solid, and that was the lesson Xander took from Transfiguration. Even rocks and metal were fluid and changed easily in form. Should he need a knife, he could have one of any shape and size with but a flick of his wand. Of course, Xander couldn't imagine ever needing one, not considering the splitting and severing curses, but the thought was there.

Charms brought him to a realization that somewhere beneath everything he'd learned in school before Hogwarts, beneath the surface, beneath the molecules, beneath even the atoms… there was energy waiting to be tapped. Waiting impatiently sometimes, even joyously, for a sentient mind to give it purpose.

Potions spoke to him of chemistry writ large, with a direct communications lane access to the deepest parts of the chemical foundation of the world. The idea that you could do so much with magical ingredients, patience, and an application of skill staggered him every time he thought of it. It was like everything he'd ever dreamed when he was younger was not only true, but merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Each of his classes were like that, though Xander was still trying to wrap his mind around Runes and Arithmancy. There had to be more there than he was seeing, but he figured it would come in time. It had taken him the better part of four years to come to his conclusions about the core courses, though honestly Xander couldn't figure out why the hell Defence was considered a core course.

It was like the founders all got together, with Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff developing this incredibly powerful concepts to teach children… and then they decided to throw Gryffindor a bone to keep him from bugging them while they worked.

Honestly, why the hell was Defense classified as a core course at Hogwarts? It wasn't even original material, it was almost entirely charms and transfigurations with some care of magical creatures mixed in.

Xander blinked, looking down at his pumpkin juice.

_Fuck. My mind wanders when I'm tired._

He stared blearily at his juice for a while, occasionally pausing to put more food in his mouth, then glanced up and over to where his compatriot and partner in crime from the night before was sitting.

_Wednesday looks too damned good for someone who was up as late as I was._ He thought, mildly annoyed by her completely 'as usual' demeanor and appearance. His growing frown deepened as Xander noticed Wednesday speaking intently with Padma and, oddly enough, Fleur. _Now what is she up to?_

His suspicion turned to paranoia when Wednesday glanced over in his direction, meeting his gaze with one of her own, and then **smirked** at him.

_Oh lord, she's plotting my doom._

* * *

"This… this is, it is insane." Fleur Delacour told her 'host', eyes flicking from one side to another to ensure no one else was listening.

She needn't have worried, there were few in Hogwarts suicidal enough to eavesdrop on Wednesday Addams and none of those were in Ravenclaw. The house of the intelligent ones had to have **some** minimum standards for acceptance, after all.

Wednesday merely matched her incredulous look with one of equanimity. "You are not required to participate, I merely offer it as a way you could repay the favor you believe your family owes."

"Yes but…" Fleur shook her head, stunned almost beyond measure.

What the Addams scion was asking was…

Fleur didn't even know how to describe it. Was it too much? No, not for what the Addams had done for her people, it was not. However it was in many ways a supreme sacrifice, one she was unable to fathom making. Wednesday was asking… everything of her.

"She's not wrong to be shocked, Wednesday," Padma said quietly, much in shock herself. "You're asking her… us, to risk… everything. For what? Some boy?"

Wednesday sat back, unmoved by the words of shock and disbelief. "I am not requiring this of either of you. My path is set. Join me on it, or not. Choice remains with you."

Padma couldn't meet her eyes, the Indian girl's gaze instead falling to the plate of food in front of her. She couldn't believe what she was being asked, it was forbidden. No, no it wasn't. Not in India, not technically even in Britain or any other place. Though that was only because it required voluntary participation, and no woman had been stupid enough to volunteer in recent memory.

Padma's eyes flicked up, looking at Wednesday again.

_How can she be so calm? She's talking about risking everything!_

Padma licked her lips,_ is she so confident? Does she believe the Addams family magics will protect her? No, impossible. But Wednesday is NOT stupid. She has to have some kind of edge, something to protect her. If it protects her, it has to protect us, that's in the nature of the ritual._

The Indian girl gnawed lightly at her lower lip, heart pounding in her ears as she spoke.

"Alright. I'm in."

Fleur looked at her in total shock, stunned beyond measure. _So easily? How can she? Don't they understand? They risk enslavement!_

The young Veela shuddered. The very thought of voluntarily walking into something that had been plaguing her people for centuries was horrific. How could either of these girls even for a moment consider it?

"Miss Addams, this is insane." She said again, "What you're planning will leave you bound to someone elses will for life. No man will be able to resist taking advantage of it, please believe me."

"It's alright, Fleur." Wednesday smiled, actually **smiled** at her. "I only thought to offer. Don't worry about it, I'll find someone else. Pity, though, a Veela would have added an inestimable quality to the ritual."

She turned to Padma, "it will have to be done over an entire year. I would prefer All Hallows or the winter Solstice. Do you have a preference?"

Padma blushed, though it was largely hidden by her dark complexion. "Spring or summer, I think?"

"Spring then." Wednesday said with finality, "I believe that the summer solstice will be taken."

"Ok, spring." Padma said, swallowing.

Fleur shuddered again. They were really going through with it.

_Insanity._

And yet… she felt an obligation to the Addams, one beyond her own life. Her family, more than that… so many families had been saved through their actions. Fleur swallowed hard.

"I'll do it." She said, her accent deepening as she did.

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "Are you certain?"

Fleur winced, but nodded. "I am."

"Take winter solstice then, I shall take the day of the dead." Wednesday told her serenely.

"Who's taking summer solstice?" Padma asked her tentatively.

Wednesday glanced up at the Slytherin table and smirked when she saw Xander looking back.

"I have someone in mind."


	108. Chapter 108

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

The announcement of the end of term was something of an anti-climax, something that Xander would never have believed possible until he came to Hogwarts. Between learning actual magic and Harry's year end capers, Xander was actually sad to see the Express waiting for them at the station.

Well, almost.

He was really looking forward to seeing Willow and Jesse over the summer, and there was a ton of things to do that he just couldn't get done inside the wards of Hogwarts, so sad wasn't the word he supposed. Still, he'd miss the inherent entertainment that Harry provided just by being around, it wasn't often you got to watch an action movie live, after all.

So it was with mixed feelings that Xander joined the rest, hauling his trunk with the door strapped to its lid. _Good thing I built that thing to collapse, I'd feel like a total idiot walking around with an actual full size door._

Wednesday was walking with him, of course, but she was being oddly silent other than shooting him occasional glances through half lidded eyes. Frankly, she was freaking him out, but to be honest Xander was long since used to that. Of course, he was quite certain she was up to something all the same, so that added a whole different dimension of creep factor to Wednesday's usual aura.

* * *

If Xander's trip back via the Express was a little antsy, Harry's was its normal level of depression. He loved Hogwarts and the magical world, and had no reason whatsoever to be happy that school was out. The idea of being sent back to the Dursleys every year just made him physically ill so, while he did put on a smile for his friends, the truth was that there was a solid pit in his stomach that felt like he'd swallowed a bowling ball.

He managed to keep joking with Ron and listening to Hermione talk about homework and OWLS, but as the train bore him back to London all he could really think about was the fact that with every passing second he was getting closer to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

He nodded at all the right times, and laughed at Ron's jokes, but by the time the Express pulled to a stop at the station he wasn't really listening to either of them.

"Harry… Harry! Harry, we're here!" Hermione shook him, breaking him of his reverie.

"Yeah," Harry forced a wan smile, "I guess we are."

Hermione didn't notice him as she grabbed her things, "Oh it's going to be so good to see mum and dad again…"

A look of horror crossed her face as she realized what she'd just said, and who she'd said it in front of, "Oh Merlin, Harry, I didn't mean…"

"It's alright, Hermione," He assured her. And it was, Harry knew that Hermione usually avoided statements like that around him. He thought it was really nice of her, really, but he felt worse when she ducked around them than he didn't even when Ron threw his own family right in his face without thinking.

Friends shouldn't be walking on eggshells around one another.

He just sighed and gathered up his trunk and the cage with Hedwig before following Hermione and Ron off the train.

The platform was full to bustling, as it always was on days the express was in use. Harry didn't bother looking for anyone, he knew there wouldn't be anyone there for him, so he just focused on making sure that Hermione was met by her parents and that he got a chance to say hello to the Weasleys.

The second was proven dead easy, as the wake that Molly Weasley left as she passed would be difficult to miss if he were blind and deaf. Mrs. Weasley hooked Ron before the boy saw her coming, which boggled Harry's mind, roping him into a crushing hug that looked physically painful in addition to the embarrassment that Ron was showing.

"Mo-om!" He wailed, trying to fight his way free, "Get off!"

Undeterred, Molly completed her greeting and instantly yanked Harry in for a similarly smothering embrace the moment she let Ron loose.

"Harry! Oh you poor boy, I can't imagine how difficult this year must have been!"

Harry managed a muffled sound that could have been anything from 'I'm fine' to 'Help! I can't breathe!'. Molly let him loose after a moment, holding him by the shoulders just a little longer so she could take a good look at him.

"You're looking good now, Harry. Try to eat something over the summer, you always seem so frail when you come back to school."

Harry mumbled something in the affirmative, but didn't put a lot of energy into it. Molly didn't seem to notice as she continued fussing over the group as they moved across the platform. She herded them to the magical barrier, only to be brought up short by a familiar and wholly unwelcomed face.

"Mr. Potter." Narcissa Malfoy nodded to Harry and then once more, curtly in the direction of Molly. "Molly."

"Come along, children. The company here isn't to my liking." Molly scowled at the young blond.

Narcissa merely raised an eyebrow in her direction, "Move along as you wish, I have no interest in your company either. I do have a few words for Mr. Potter, however."

"He has no interest in anything you might say."

"Hardly your place to decide." Narcissa replied dryly, eyes on Harry. "Congratulations on your victory, Mr. Potter."

"Cedric and I tied." Harry said, flushing a little.

"Not the victory I was referring to." Narcissa said with a hint of a smile. "Lucius received an… shall we say unwelcome visitor that night."

Harry's eyes widened, his jaw opening in shock.

"Be careful, Mr. Potter." She said, turning away, "You have dangerous enemies… I believe that the Regent Black will likely be receiving an owl with pertinent information. You may want to be ready."

"I… yes, thank you Mrs. Malfoy." Harry managed to stammer out.

As Narcissa walked away, Molly scowled at her back.

"Well I never." The redhead grumbled, "Implying that you should contact anyone connected to that family."

Molly sniffed, "Come along, now."

They made it through the barrier a few seconds later, and Molly looked around. She pursed her lips as she recognized Harry's Uncle in the distance, frowning in disapproval. Aloud, however, she just said, "Harry, dear, I see your Uncle over there."

Harry sighed, but nodded. "I do to, alright, I'll see you later in the summer, right guys?"

"Absolutely!" Ron said, grinning. "We'll get you over to the Burrow, don't you worry."

"Of course, Harry." Hermione confirmed.

"Ok, see you then." Harry said, leaving the group and heading across the platform.

Molly watched him go, then tutted and shook her head. "Well come along you lot, Hermione dear, are those your parents?"

Hermione couldn't help it, she squealed in excitement and waved. "Mum! Dad! Over here!"

Behind them, Harry trudged over to where his Uncle was standing, resigned now to meet his fate. It wasn't until he got very close that he noticed something odd and cocked his head as he looked at the figure.

"Uncle Vernon?"

"Not quite."

Harry almost jumped out of his skin as the soft voice came from behind his left hear, spinning around he was going for his wand until he recognized the speaker.

"Mrs. Tonks?"

Andromeda Tonks smiled and nodded, "Yes harry. We have a few things to do before we take you home, so let's be about it shall we?"

"Wait, what's going on? Is that Uncle Vernon?" Harry squinted at the man standing there. Something was off, but he couldn't figure out what.

It hit him when Vernon smiled at him.

Whoever this was looked WAY too pleasant to be Vernon.

"Polyjuice?" Harry ventured after a moment.

"Not bad, kid, but no." Vernon said, smiling at him cheerfully.

"Then what…"

"Not here." Andromeda said, rolling her eyes. "Let's be moving before someone takes note of our presence, yes?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess." Harry let her guide him away.

Once away from the station, 'Uncle Vernon' grinned and shifted. His hair changed color first, becoming a glaring pink that shocked a laugh from Harry before the rest of his body compressed and shifted into that of a young woman who stretched and hopped on the balls of her feet.

"God, that feels so good to drop that ugly mask. Blech."

"Harry, meet my daughter, Nymphadora."

Nymphadora glared at her mother, then at Harry, "That's Tonks to you, kiddo, unless you want to meet the business end of my wand. Got it?"

"Uh… yeah?"

She was all smiled again, "Good. Now then, mum, since I've helped you kidnap the boy who lived, what's next?"

"Hardly a kidnapping, Dora." Andromeda said, rolling her eyes, "We spoke with Harry's Aunt and she gave us permission to pick him up. I simply didn't want to get into some interminable discussion with Molly Weasley over it."

"Or have her talking to everyone about it, I'll bet."

"That too, I will admit." Andromeda inclined her head before looking at Harry, "Did Narcissa have a word with you, Harry?"

He nodded.

"Then you know, he is back, and he has begun gathering his Death Eaters again." Andromeda sighed, "there's trouble ahead."

"I still can't quite believe it," Dora said seriously, "How do you come back from the dead, anyway?"

"Dumbledore never thought he was dead," Harry offered up, shrugging glumly.

"Yes, well, rumors of your near crippling Barty Crouch Jr have begun to spread." Andromeda said, "and since you did that while in combat with the Dark Lord, his reputation is taking a bit of a hit. We have a source of information in his camp, for the moment the Dark Lord is planning on remaining in hiding. Lucius has been instructed to begin pushing the Minister to discrediting you and Dumbledore, so we're going to be taking steps to counter that before it starts."

Harry frowned, "What? How?"

"First, you're going to publish a public apology."

"For what?" Harry scowled, "I haven't done anything!"

"Precisely."

Harry paused, shaking his head. "Uh. What?"

* * *

Xander's head was spinning when the portkey dropped him off at Salem, causing him to just stand still for a moment and try to will the world to slow down.

"Mr. Harris, Ms. Addams. Welcome back to Salem."

He and Wednesday looked to the side to see a woman in robes calmly waiting for them.

"I'm Vice Dean Merriman." She said with a smile, "How was the portkey trip?"

"Trippy." Xander said in a voice that wasn't quite a groan, "Very trippy."

Her lips twitched slightly, but otherwise Merriman kept a straight face. "I see. And for you, Ms. Addams?"

Wednesday fixed her with a cool glance, then shrugged, "Trippy. As he said."

Xander couldn't help but grin as the Vice Dean's eyes widened and the woman seemed to choke on something, but just managed to keep things together.

"I… Very well," She said finally, "We've scheduled a series of exams for you, don't worry about them too much, they're to determine placement more than marks. We just want to see where you both stand in relation to full time domestic students."

Wednesday just nodded as Xander groaned.

"More tests?" He asked plaintively.

"Don't be an infant, Alexander." Wednesday said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yes mum." Xander smirked, totally ignoring the death glare she shot him as he fell into step behind the Vice Dean.

* * *

"Ah, Miss Tonks. A pleasure as always."

"Rupert," Andromeda inclined her head to the editor of the Daily Prophet, "Good to see you again."

"Now, what can I do for you?" He asked with an affable smile.

Andromeda returned it just as blandly, knowing that the man in front of her would cheerfully slice her and her charge to ribbons if he thought he could get away with it. "Mr. Potter and I would like to take out an ad."

Rupert Collins raised an eyebrow, head pivoting sharply to examine the young man with Andromeda for the first time. "Mr. Potter. An honor, Sir."

Harry just nodded back nervously.

"So what is this ad about?" He asked, turning back to Andromeda. Rupert Collins was well aware that Andromeda Tonks, while technically of little influence, still managed to swing a heavy beaters bat in certain circles, she had friends in the Ministry so he wasn't going to go gunning for her without good cause.

Andromeda, for her part, smiled coolly and handed him a copy to examine.

He slipped on a pair of glasses and started read, making surprised sounds every so often as he noted that it was a public apology from Mr. Potter to… well, his public actually. When he reached a certain part, Rupert's head snapped up and he stared right at Harry in shock.

"Is this true?"

"It's all true, Sir," Harry said, "but which part are you referring to?"

"This bit about the mail wards."

"Ah, yes," Harry confirmed, "I've never received any mail until after I got my Hogwarts letter."

"And then," Andromeda picked up, "Only from specific owls. Hogwarts, Ministry, his own, and owls belonging to a close friend. We suspect they've all been charmed to pass through the wards."

"They'd have to be, wouldn't they?" Collins mumbled, pouring over the page. "I happen to know my niece sent you cards every year for almost a decade."

"I've heard similar stories, Sir." Harry said, shaking his head, "Truth is, though, some years I don't even get mail from my friends. Never occurred to me until last summer that anyone would send me mail like that."

"But you're the boy who lived!"

"Yes, but I've not been raised in the magical world." Harry said, following Andromeda's plan for the meeting. "My relatives are Muggles, Sir, and while they know about magic they have absolutely no desire to be involved in this world. I wasn't told about magic or even my parents until Hagrid came to deliver my Hogwarts letter."

"Shocking…"

Harry shrugged, staying clear of personal details like his treatment from his relatives. They'd considered exposing that bit of information, but had decided against it for various reasons. Andromeda felt it would be a bit too much like whining, and could turn some people against him, and Harry simply didn't want to air his personal life to the public any more than he absolutely had to.

"You'll run the ad, then?"

Rupert nodded quickly, "Absolutely."

"How much for a full page?"

The editor waved a hand off, "Let me be frank, Miss Tonks, Mr. Potter… I should pay you for this. It'll bump circulation up at least threefold is my bet, we'll tease it on the front page and run it on page four… if that's acceptable?"

"Eminently." Andromeda smiled.

"Mr. Potter," Collins hesitated for a second, "Could we arrange a follow up interview?"

Harry glanced at Andromeda, who inclined her head slightly before speaking.

"Mr. Potter isn't adverse to the suggestion, however you will understand if we're hesitant to throw him to the wolves. He is still a minor, Mr. Collins."

"Of course, we'll let you screen the questions," He offered.

"We also reserve veto on the interviewer." Andromeda countered, "So if you choose to send, for example, Ms. Skeeter, kindly inform her that should she step out of line Mr. Potter will take future interviews to a different reporter… or a different paper, yes?"

"Of course." Collins smiled woodenly.

"Then we have an accord, Sir."

"I'll be in contact with you, Mr. Potter… ah," Collins glanced down at the paper, "Or perhaps I should contact Mrs. Tonks?"

"That would be best, yes," Andromeda confirmed with a smile. "At least until we work out this mail issue. You may also leave messages with Gringotts Estate Management, however there is no telling how long before those will be retrieved, given Mr. Potter's time at school and the fact that he has limited access to the magical world during the summer."

"Yes, I see. Very well, I'll list you as the contact, Andromeda." Collins rose to his feet, extending his hand to her.

She reciprocated and smiled tolerantly when he bent over it and lightly brushed his lips to her knuckles. "Thank you, Rupert."

He let her hand go, and Andromeda quietly but efficiently ushered Harry out of the offices of the Daily Prophet. Collins watched them go, and found himself staring at the door blankly for the longest time before coming out of his fugue state.

When he did, he glanced at the time and was suddenly galvanized. He lept up, rushing for the bullpen with the copy in his hand.

"Hold the presses!"

* * *

"Now, that was a good bit of work done." Andromeda said serenely as they walked out of the Prophet offices and down the side alley that led back to Diagon. "And it'll put a bit of a crimp in any plans to make you look like some spoiled child screaming for attention."

"Not sure how it keeps them from attacking Dumbledore and me…" Harry frowned.

"I couldn't care less what they do concerning Albus Dumbledore." Andromeda sniffed, "The man has been a politician for longer than I've been alive, he can look out for himself. As for yourself, it won't prevent an attack. What it will do is blunt its edge, by putting a conflicting image of you in people's minds."

Harry nodded dutifully, but he didn't really understand it all.

"We're not done, either, but we don't want to fling all our curses at once," She informed him. "A motion of this nature has to be done steadily, over time, for greatest effect. A little here, and a little there, our goal isn't a huge swing in opinion over the short term. We want to build a concrete foundation that will last a lifetime."

"You'll have to learn this, Harry." She said, "both as Regent Black and Sir Harry, Potter of Potter. You're a public figure as the head of your clan, and acting head of mine, and people will attack you in order to harm your family."

Harry's face tensed, he hadn't thought of that. Usually he worried about people attacking his friends to hurt him, it had never occurred to him that it could work both ways. "Why would they want to hurt my family?"

"Both the Blacks and the Potters have made many enemies over the centuries, Harry," She explained patiently as they walked, "some of those resulted in feuds of varying degrees that could be a cause, but more likely is that they'll attack you to tarnish the names of the families you represent as a means to increase their power by decreasing yours."

Andromeda was pleased to note that Harry was listening intently, apparently deeply involved in what she was saying. She could only wish that Nymphadora had paid remotely as much attention when she'd tried to impart this series of lessons. Of course, at the time she hadn't expected them to be terribly important to her daughter, as their family was a relatively unimportant nonentity in the most vicious of circles that followed these traditions. Had she been a Black at that time, she would simply never had put up with Nymphadoras inattention.

"Remember, your family… and mine," She added carefully, "Hold power in their name. Power you can use to do whatever you think is best for the clan and the magical world. Other people recognize this, and they guard their own power jealously. To keep you from undermining their own positions, or just to bolster their position in general, many of them would not even blink at destroying everything you and your family has built. We learn these lessons, not only to promote our own positions, but to defend our family name and history."

Harry was slowly nodding, but didn't say anything. Andromeda smiled slightly, mildly pleased with what she was seeing. He wasn't a fool, she knew that, but Harry rarely showed real determination. When he did, she suspected few things in the world could stop him, and unless she was greatly mistaken… he was showing some very impressive determination just now.

_Perfect._

* * *

"How did they do?"

The Vice Dean glanced up to see Arthur Fitzpatrick standing in her doorway, eyeing the papers on her desk with a genial, if curious, eye.

"The Addams child did as expected, near perfect in all her scores." Miranda Merriman said calmly, "Though her answers on the ethics portion of the tests were enough to send your average murderer screaming for the local constabulary."

"I'm sure," Arthur chuckled in amusement. "And the Harris lad?"

"Mixed." She said, "He's slipping behind in his mundane classes, but his general magical understanding is remarkably high. Higher than the Addams girl in some places, Harris shows an intuitive comprehension that you don't learn from a book."

"Wonderful."

"Arthur, we need to get these two out of Hogwarts." She said sternly, "While you'd be hard pressed to find another school with a Charms or Transfiguration program to match, Harris is starting to show some signs of falling below standards in all his mundane classes… well, save History. Boy shows a real talent for history, a lot of enthusiasm for the subject."

"Really? That's a rarity these days," Arthur said, sounding pleased, "children are so focused on the future, even in our world."

"Yes, well, he's also dropping below standards in Potions…" Miranda frowned, "Which makes little sense, the boy showed early signs of being a potions prodigy."

"Hmm…" Arthur caressed his beard idly, "That may be evidence that some of the rumors concerning Hogwarts potions master are true."

"I can't imagine any education would let someone that vile near children, Arthur." She countered, rolling her eyes. "I expect that he's just getting bored with the normal curriculum. If he is a prodigy, you know as well as I do that it's frightfully easy to ruin one of those."

"Sadly true." Arthur nodded, straightening up. "I'll take your concerns under consideration, Miranda, but you know as well as I that they've chosen to go to Hogwarts. We can't force them to change."

"Poppycock." She muttered, "Just withdraw the exchange program."

"Miranda, Miranda," he chided her with a smile, "If I did that I promise you that Gomez Addams would instantly replace it with funds from his own pocket, and then he'd likely pull his donations to our own programs. No, I don't think I'll be slicing off my nose to spite my face on this subject, Miranda. We'll talk more later, though. Enjoy the rest of your day, my dear… it's lovely out."

Miranda Merriman sighed, knowing he was right. It was still terribly frustrating to see a potentially great student wasted however.


	109. Chapter 109

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander grimaced again as he carefully stepped around the filth that coated the ground near the portkey point in Sunnydale. While the non-magical side of the town was pristine and by all appearances a perfect suburb sort of place, the magical side showed it's dark side. It didn't look like anyone took care of the alley that served the few witches and wizards that made their home in the area.

Xander dodged a couple of the less savory locals and let himself out through Willy's alibi room, nodded to the short man behind the bar as he did. Once out in the clear air beyond, though, Xander stood for a moment in the sun and closed his eyes as he smiled.

California had its perks.

After a few moments of soaking in the rays, Xander slung his collapsed door over his shoulder and picked up the end of his trunk as he started to make his way home. He only made it a half a block before an old Chevy pulled up beside him and blew the horn, almost scaring him out of his skin.

"Rory?" Xander frowned, peering in through the side door.

"Hey kid," Sam 'Rory' Axe nodded in his direction, "Your folks sent me to pick you up."

"Why? I can walk it?" Xander shrugged, half grinning, "I'm not that out of shape from the winter."

"Better not be, kid, or I'll make you pay," Sam grinned, "but that's not it. Folks closed escrow on a new house last week, old place is already sold. All your stuff is at the junkyard, but I figured you'd want to go see your folks before heading over there."

Xander tossed his trunk and door in the backseat and hopped into the front, "Why's my stuff at the junkyard, Dad finally kicking me out?"

Sam glanced at him, noting the tone of concern below the false lightness Xander was pushing forward.

"Nothing like that, kid. Just figured that you'd want stay there, what since you've got your own apartment and shop there." Sam said, "especially with the noise at home."

Xander winced, "Are they fighting again?"

Sam shook his head, grinning, "Kid you've been away a long time."

"It's been less than ten months!" Xander objected.

"Sometimes you only need nine, kid."

Xander stared at his uncle for a long moment, frowning, "Are you drinking again, Unc? Cause I don't want to be killed in a car accident of all things…"

Sam just laughed at him, taking the road out and away from the high school to the more well to do section of town. Xander was surprised when he pulled into a long driveway, the place was more than he thought his dad would have gone for. It wasn't as posh as the Chase residence, the place was too far out of town for that, but it was a nice lot with a sea view and Xander could feel the tingle of the wards as they drove up.

"Dad bought this place?"

"He and your mom, really." Sam said, killing the engine, "Don't worry, it didn't come from your money."

"That's not what I was thinking about, but how'd they manage without it?" Xander asked, hopping out and reaching back in for his stuff.

"Leave it," Sam said, "until you decide where you're staying anyway."

"Right." Xander shrugged, slamming the door of the beaten up old Chevy. "Whatever."

The first thing that assaulted him as they walked in the door was an unholy howling that had him clapping his hands over his ears, "Gah!"

Xander turned to sprint back out, heading for the car, only to be caught up by Sam.

"Whoa, where are you going, kid?"

"Are you kidding? There has to be a full grown mandrake in there! I need my ear plugs!"

Sam looked at him, astonished for a moment, and then the former SEAL started to laugh. He grabbed his nephew by the shoulders and turned him around, pushing him ahead into the house.

"Relax kid, you won't need magical ear protection here." Sam grinned.

"I wouldn't say that," Jessica's voice rose tiredly over the crying.

"Kid," Sam shoved Xander ahead of him into the living area, "Meet your little sister."

Xander stumbled in shock, eyes falling on the infant in his mother's arms as she sat rocking by the window.

"I think he's taking this well, don't you?"

Jessica rolled her eyes at Sam's comment, choosing to ignore Xander's slack jaw for the moment. "Sit down, Sam. Tony will be home soon. And you, Alex, shut your mouth. Really, there's no cause for that."

"Buh… wha? I left," Xander said, looking back out the way he came in, "Then I came back and… guh?"

"You did leave for almost a year, Alex." She said, amused by his distinct lack of vocabulary. "Come say hello to your sister."

He stepped closer awkwardly, eyes glued to the small person in his mother's arms. "Umm, what's her..?"

"This is Naomi Lavelle, Alex." Jessica said with a soft smile.

"Lavelle?" Xander looked up to his mother, confused.

"The family asked us to consider having another child," Jessica looked proudly at her son, "You impressed them a great deal."

"Whoa." Xander shook his head, then slowly reached out to gently nudge the little girl's chin. The infant stopped crying to look at him for a moment. "Hello Naomi."

He smiled as the child cooed at him, "I'm your brother. It's good to meet you…"

Xander scowled humorously at his mother, "Even if it's a little late."

He frowned for a moment, then looked up again, "Is she…?"

"Magical?" Jessica asked with a half-smile as she looked down at her daughter.

"Yeah." Xander sighed. He hated that fact that it even occurred to him to ask, but it was so important to the world he lived in now.

"Yes." His mother said, not looking up. "She's marvelously magical, aren't you Naomi?"

Xander let out a breath, "Really? So the family is satisfied?"

Jessica smiled at her son, nodding. "Very much so. They've offered to pay for the care of another child, if we wish."

Xander's eyes widened, "A… are you?"

"We haven't decided yet," She said, shifting Naomi around. "I think we'll give Naomi a little while to grow before we think about another little one."

Xander shook his head, "Whew. I got to say, I'm blown away. Never expected to come home to this."

"Is it a bad thing?"

"Does she cry like that a lot?"

Jessica nodded wearily.

"Well I guess it's good that Sam said my stuff is at the junkyard." Xander grinned.

"Boys." She rolled her eyes, "Your father is the same, the man suddenly developed a work ethic. Amazing."

Xander suddenly noticed how tired his mother looked and frowned, "If you need some time, mom, you can bring her by the yard. I'll babysit."

Jessica's eyes danced with amusement, "I hope you know what you're in for."

"What? It can't be that bad, right?"

"Right?"

* * *

Head still swimming, frankly, from the reception he'd received at home, Xander was pretty happy to drop his trunk and kit off in the small apartment overlooking the junkyard he now owned and just flopped into the old beat up couch that was against the wall.

"Not what you expected, huh kid?" Sam asked, chuckling at him.

Xander shook his head, his jaw a little loose even now as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that he had a baby sister.

"Your parents have been alternately over the moon and cursing the family for this one, let me tell you." Sam laughed openly, "was never stupid enough to have any kids myself."

"It's just… whoa." Xander said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I get that. Still, you've got things to do, kid, shake it off."

"Oh come on," Xander whined, "I just got home! I so don't want to start your insano training crap already!"

Sam eyed him evilly, "We'll get to my insano training crap soon enough, but not today. Relax, this is a good thing."

"Oh? Is Willow over?"

"Naw, she'll be by later today. School runs a little later here than over there, she's got an exam today." Sam gestured to the door, "The boys downstairs have a present for you."

"For me? Why?"

"You got them jobs, for one." Sam shrugged, "Steady employment can be tough for some of the folks Robert dug up for you."

"How come?" Xander asked, not that he was really overly concerned about it. He'd really only asked that Robert find him some guys who knew enough about mechanics to do the job, beyond that he didn't really care.

"Well, two of the guys are a little wolfy by times," Sam explained, "And another got himself into some trouble with the law when he got caught in the crossfire between some magical constables and a few dark types. He wasn't involved, but the Feds didn't take a shine to the fact that he woke up in the middle of a blown out building. They never convicted, but the domestic terrorist flag has been floating over his head for a while. Damn magicals never bother to clean up their mess, just toss a couple Obliviates and leave the rest to normal folk to work out."

Xander winced, both at the fact that his uncle was basically cursing him along with every other magical and at the idea of leaving those sorts of loose ends lying around. While he was no fan of Obliviation as a rule, it seemed a little too much like a really personal violation, it was even worse to do a half assed job. Ruining someone's life just because they happened to be caught in the crossfire of something they didn't understand sucked, doing it because you can't be bothered to do your job properly was flat out evil.

"Anyway," Sam went on, "They got together with Black, nice guy by the way, my kind of sense of humor… with his help they fixed something up for you."

Ok, Xander had to admit, he didn't know now whether to be excited or nervous. Black was a consummate practical joker, and anything he was involved in had to be treated with extreme caution at the very least.

"They had to dig out some parts and order a few others, but they got it all together for you anyway." Sam went on, either not noticing or simply ignoring Xander's sudden apprehension as he led them down from the apartment to the sizeable garage it was built over.

Xander was impressed when he saw it, they'd done a lot of work from the last time he'd been inside. It was cleaner, for one, which alone meant that either they'd done a hell of a lot of work… or, more likely, Sirius had traded some cleaning spells for whatever he needed from the yard. Either way, Xander liked the look of the place a lot more. They'd refitted the hydraulic lifts that had been rusting out when he bought the place, and the tool cases were still a little beat up but now looked usable instead of like scrap.

"Everyone," Sam said, waving to three guys who were working across the garage. "I'd like to introduce you to the owner, Alexander Harris."

"Umm, hi." Xander waved with an uncomfortable smile as they wandered over. Two of them were thin men, and had a wary look in their eye as they checked him out. The third was a little overweight and towered over the other two. They all were in coveralls, dirty and obviously worn from heavy use. "Call me Xander."

"This is Craig Osbourne, local Sunnydalian." Sam said, nodding to one of the thin men. "You may have seen him around town."

"Hey there, Mr. Harris. I want to thank you for the opportunity…"

"Xander, please, really." Xander cut him off, "And don't worry about it. I needed some people to make this run as a business, so I need to thank you guys for working here. Without you I couldn't have convinced by dad to sign off on spending this much money, and I really need the yard space for some studies and experiments."

"Well just the same, I think I can speak for all of us here when I say thank you… Xander." The second thin man said, extending his hand. "I'm Brian Hunt."

Xander took his hand, shaking it easily, "Good to meet you, and you Craig."

He looked over to the big guy, extending a hand in his direction.

"Patrick Kruse." The man offered, shaking his hand. "And it's good to meet you… Xander."

Xander smiled, nodding to all three.

"Alright, where's Black anyway?" Sam asked, "He said he'd be by to help Xander with the present."

"He's in the next building, where we figured Xander would like to setup his workshop." Craig explained.

"Ah, great, let's all head over there."

"We've got work left here," Craig equivocated.

Neither Xander, nor Sam, were having any of it.

"Take a break, you all helped set this up."

"He's right," Xander agreed. "Come on, don't worry about the work for now."

The three men were agreeable to that and the group left the large garage and headed over to a somewhat smaller building with a single garage bay door. Sam led them in and they found Sirius Black standing near a lump of tarp sitting in the center of the room.

"Black, you reprobate, is it ready?" Sam asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Coming from you that's real funny, Axe. And yes, it's all done. We were cutting it close on the charms, but I made it on time."

"Probably for the first time in your life." Sam rolled his eyes.

"My mother and my teachers at Hogwarts would agree with you." Sirius grinned unrepentantly.

"Uh, not to interrupt the mutual admiration and all," Xander cut in, "but what is it?"

Sirius' eyes gleamed as he stepped back from the tarp and flicked his wand in its direction. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The tarp floated clear, leaving Xander to stare in shock as his jaw dropped. Beneath it was a motorcycle, a big one that had a matte black paintjob marked only by a white star on either side of the gas tank. It was an older design, something he'd only seen in world war two movies, but it looked awesome all the same.

"This is… mine?" He asked, not quite believing it.

"All yours, kid." Sam nodded. "The boys here got the idea from Black working on his own, and they scrounged up the parts and rebuilt her. Black did the charm and rune work, so he'll have to let you in on how it runs."

"It's a classic Indian Chief," Craig Osbourne said, "When we found her she wasn't in the best of shape, but we decided that she deserved better than to rust out in the yard. This one is a military model, left hand throttle so you could shoot with the right if you had to. Restoring it was a privilege. We never would have thought of it, except for Sirius though."

Sirius shrugged, "I figured you could use a way to get around. I built my first bike so I could portkey safely around Britain during the first war."

Xander frowned, "Wait… how does that work?"

"You ever hear how portkeys work?"

"Yeah," Xander said, "They travel in an arc, right?"

"Right, and if they encounter a ward while they travel it can be really bad." Sirius said, "fatal bad, alright?"

"I was informed about that," Xander nodded.

"ok, but you can control the arc if you control where you start from," Sirius said, "I used to fly up way up in the sky before I portkeyed, it kept the travel arc clear of wards and, as a bonus, the ministry detection grid is focused on ground level, plus a few hundred feet. Even when death eaters bribed officials in the ministry, I was pretty much undetectable."

"Cool." Xander said, "How high can you go?"

Sirius shrugged, "I never took it up past a few thousand feet, to be honest. This one I rigged with the charms that conjure a surface under the tires as you fly, so in theory you should be able to go up as high as you want. Gets kinda hard to breath up there, though, so don't forget a bubblehead charm if you do, ok?"

Xander nodded, "Thanks… All of you, thanks so much."

He ran his hands over the bike as he stepped around it, then looked up to the others as if asking permission.

Sam got it quickly and just waved, "Get on, kid. See how it fits."

Xander grinned and swung himself over the bike to drop into the saddle. The springs creaked just slightly as it gave under his weight, and he found it surprisingly comfortable for the look of it.

"Comfort charms," Sirius grinned, seeing his expression. "I spared nothing for this, kid. You've got the deluxe model here."

"So cool." Xander grinned, hands on the grips.

"Remember, throttle is over on the left on this model." Sam said, "We put a wand holster on the tank, right side."

Xander looked down to see the holster strapped into place and produced his Ollivander wand to slide into place. It fit nicely, reminding him actually that he had to put together a replacement for the wand he'd given Harry.

_Another project for the summer_.

As if he didn't have enough to do already.

Still, he had to admit, the summer was now starting off better than anything else he'd ever experienced.

"Guys, thanks. Seriously, this is too cool."

"It was our pleasure, boss." Craig said easily, "Enjoy it, just don't wreck it. Finding parts for an old Indian is a pain."

"Don't worry," Sirius said, "I'll teach him everything I know about driving a bike."

"Yeah, kid," Craig said dryly. "Get lessons."

"Hey!" Sirius objected.

Xander snorted, but quickly turned his focus back on the bike.

"So Cool."


	110. Chapter 110

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

"Alexander Lavelle Harris!"

Xander automatically ducked down behind the bike he totally hadn't been fawning over, cringing at the tone and the use of his full name. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve that, but it didn't bode well for him. Not well at all. He risked a peek over the wide seat of the Indian and gulped as he saw a red haired homing missile zeroing in on her target.

"Yes Willow?" Xander asked, trying to sound as pitiful as possible.

"Oh don't you _dare_ try that 'innocent little me' stuff! I'm on to you, mister!" She glared at him as she advanced, "You've been home since _yesterday_ and you didn't call me!? I had to find out from Sirius of all people!?"

_Hoo boy_, Xander grimaced as he moved around the bike to keep the old Indian between himself and Willow.

"I uh, got distracted?" He offered, sounding lame even to his own ears.

Willow faked right, then darted left in order to catch him but Xander knew her too well for that to work. Willow always faked right. "Come back here you… you… poopy head!"

"Come on!" Xander complained, "I got him and my mom and dad dropped the whole 'new baby' thing on me! I got distracted, I would have called you today, I promise!"

Willow paused, considering that. It was a fair excuse, she had to admit, and though she let out an annoyed sigh Willow finally nodded. "Alright, mister. That's fair I guess. I mean, a new little sister is a big deal and it must have been a shock so I guess I can forgive you…"

Xander let out a relieved breath, which lasted just long enough for Sirius to make his presence known.

"Jeez, kid, are you still drooling on the bike? You've been staring at it since yesterday."

Xander's eyes went wide as he looked over at Sirius, then turned to see Willow rapidly building a new head of steam as she openly glared at him. He backed off, "Now Willow, don't do anything you'll regret…"

A stinging hex flew past his head as he ducked.

"I'm not planning on it!" She growled in response, giving chase as Xander bolted for the door and headed out into the junkyard.

Sirius watched them run, smirking to himself as he began to whistle tunelessly and walk over to where his own bike was in a partially disassembled state. He hoped the duo had some fun, Willow had been a little listless over the last few months and he remembered how he felt when he was cut off from his friends.

_Some time together will do the two of them the world of good,_ He thought cheerfully, totally ignoring the curses being flung at Xander by the irate redhead. _Who knows, maybe the two of them will wake up and recognize what's under their nose._

"Help!"

Sirius shook his head, annoyed by the noise, and grabbed a pair of headphones plugged into a nearby stereo.

"Crazy witch!"

"Come back here and take your punishment like a man!"

"I'm not that manly!"

Sirius was laughing under his breath the whole time as he listened to music and worked on his bike.

* * *

Xander had collapsed against an old crumpled Camaro hood, breathing heavily but in far better shape than Willow who was wheezing on the ground a few feet away.

"Not… fair…" She gasped out, "You… never… used… to… be… able… to… out… run me."

"Been working out." He told her, honestly.

Willow just nodded from where she was puffing on the ground, sweat soaking her face and matting her hair to her forehead. She knew that he'd been exercising, but it hadn't quite sunk in just how much it had affected him.

After a few more moments of getting her breath, Willow looked up at him, "Where did you learn to run all over things like that? I had to chase all around everything and you just went right over it."

"Free running, something the French are calling parkour." Xander told her, "You like it?"

"No!" Willow snapped, folding her arms over her chest, "I used to be able to catch you."

Xander laughed freely from above her, hopping up to sit on the hood of the car. "How was the year, then, Wills?"

Willow pouted, amused neither by the new topic or the old. Either way she was reminded of things she'd rather not be thinking of just then.

"It was alright." She said, opting to lie to her best friend, rather than drop her problems on his head.

Of course, that path might have worked out better for her if Willow wasn't such a bad liar. Xander didn't even have to look down to know that the redhead on the ground below him was starting to literally break out in hives. He sighed, shaking his head, and slid himself around so his head dropped over the edge of the hood as he lay on the car and awkwardly looked down at her.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." She told him, eyes nervously scanning the dirt as she played with the strap of her denim coveralls, trying to ignore the itchiness that was starting to prickle at her throat and neck.

"Wills, you know you sweat when you lie," Xander said patiently, "And you're the only person I've ever met who was allergic to their own sweat."

"I am NOT!"

Xander reached down and scratched her neck, causing Willow to arc up slightly so she could lean into the touch and almost, though not quite, start purring like a kitten. Xander just started laughing.

"Come on, Wills, what happened?"

"Nothing happened," She said again, sighing, "Really. It's just that since you left, I've been…"

Willow settled back down, just out of his reach, pulling her knees up and hugging them tightly against her chest.

"Alone."

Xander didn't know what to say to that, he guess he'd known about her being on her own mostly since he left. Jessie had starting hanging out with a new crowd, mostly gamers, but he hadn't really thought it all the way through maybe. _I've got Wednesday and Herms, hell even Harry sometimes lately. If you count Draco as comic relief, I've got a whole group of friends._

"I…" He turned his head, looking up at the clouds as they moved over. "I guess I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," Willow said seriously, "This isn't on you, Xander. It's me. You've got a great opportunity and I'd kick your butt, mister, if you gave it up… but I just wish my mom and dad had let me go with you."

"That would have kicked ass." Xander grinned, "You and Wednesday would both be in Ravenclaw, and you'd love Herms, I promise you. She's like… English Willow!"

He considered that for a moment, then frowned, "uh, you know, except that you both speak English and all that…"

Willow giggled from the ground, "I know what you meant, Xander."

"Oh, good." Xander sighed, clearly relieved, "Cause I wasn't sure there for a minute."

Willow smiled, standing up so she could look down at where Xander was lying on the car hood. "Thanks, Xander."

"What? I didn't do anything." Xander sat up, puzzled, as he hopped off the car.

"Yes you did." She said, taking a deep breath. "I'll be fine. It's just hard sometimes."

Xander hugged her around the shoulders, squeezing tight, "Hey, of course you'll be fine. You'll always make it through, you're Willow! The real deal, accept no substitutes."

"Not even English ones?" She asked, smiling.

"Not even." Xander swore, "Though as far as knock offs go, Herms is high quality."

Willow couldn't help giggling again, "I'll let her know that she's a high quality knockoff next time we have a movie night."

Xander's eyes widened comically, "You wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

"Naw, not unless you annoy me."

"I'm so doomed."

Xander slumped, head down as they walked, Willow still giggling while the two headed back to the workshop.

* * *

Hogwarts, Scotland.

Albus Dumbledore found himself perplexed as he read the article and posted announcement in the Daily Prophet.

_This isn't Harry's work, clearly._

He only had to puzzle about it for a few seconds, though, before the answer came to him.

_Andromeda. I'm beginning to think that introducing them may have been a mistake on my part._

Though it wasn't like he had a great deal of choice in the matter, and this particular issue wasn't a big concern. Honestly, Albus had simply forgotten that he ever had placed mail wards on the boy. They were a necessary addition within literally hours of placing the boy with the Dursleys, otherwise the muggle home would have been buried under letters, gifts, and all manner of nasty threats, curses, and otherwise trapped parcels from 'anonymous' sources.

He'd placed a few loopholes in the mail wards, including himself and the ministry and all members in good standing of the Order of the Phoenix, but other than that had simply left them be. House elves took care of sorting it all, isolating anything potentially dangerous for later examination, but he winced as he realized that there was more than twelve years of 'later examinations' waiting to be done.

_Oh dear._

Albus sighed, shaking his head. It had seemed like something that could be put off safely, in favor of more pressing needs, but a few weeks turned into months and then into years, and now there would be work to be done.

"Dippy!" He called out from his desk.

"Yes Professor Dumblydoor, Sir?" The house elf instantly popped into place.

"What's the status of the mail I put you in charge of sorting?"

"All is stored in the Potters Keep, as promised!"

"Good, good." He nodded, you can go now."

The elf vanished away, leaving Albus nodding to himself. At least nothing was missing, he could easily explain himself as long as there was no 'stolen' pieces of mail. After all, who would expect a muggle household to have to deal with such a massive deluge of magical mail?

That only left the nearly inexplicable hostility of the Minister and Ministry against himself and young Mister Potter. Since the night of Voldemort's return, it had become plain to see that the previous graces he and Harry had 'enjoyed' were well and truly gone. The Prophet attacks were near constant, except for a few pieces that Albus had easily traced back to Andromeda like the apology. If not for those, he would be truly worried for Harry's security, but as things stood it was clear that the Prophet was having far greater luck with their attacks on one Albus Dumbledore than they were against young Harry.

_Silver linings are lovely things, indeed, if only they didn't come with the dark clouds._

* * *

Surrey, England.

Number Four Privet Drive, was an average looking home on an average looking street in Surrey. It had a very nice lawn, decidedly above garden plot, and an award winning set of flower beds. Working in those beds was an average looking young man who was decidedly not average by any measurement the world might care to set, but Harry James Potter was content to let those who walked by the home pass without having that pointed out.

Harry was a Wizard, of course, and more than that he was The Boy Who Lived, for what that was worth. At that time he didn't feel much like anything special, not with his hands wrist deep in the dirt that housed the flowers his aunt had planted earlier in the spring. Now that he was home, taking care of the beds was one of his chores for the summer.

Honestly, Harry kind of liked working in the gardens, though he suspected that Neville Longbottom could make him look like an incompetent fool by comparison if the other Gryffindor were here to help.

It was easy work by some definitions, physically taxing but now that he knew his way around the job it wasn't something that kept his brain busy so he could think about other developments in his life. With Sirius in 'Exile', he'd been named to the position of Regent Black. It came with some neat bonuses, like the legal right to use magic, but for the moment Harry had grudgingly agreed with his chief (only?) advisor, Andromeda Tonks, to keep that under his belt.

It didn't take long for him to see why.

The Daily Prophet, shortly after running his apology concerning the mail wards, began pumping out various slander pieces against himself and Headmaster Dumbledore. Harry didn't know what was going on, but even he could see that right now he wasn't the ministry's favorite person.

He could only assume it was because Fudge didn't want to believe what he said about Voldemort, but it wasn't like he was alone in speaking up!

There were even Aurors backing his story up, He'd heard them speaking himself. Ok, they didn't know for sure that it was Voldemort but Harry agreed with Shacklbolt when the dark skinned Auror had said that anyone who could out duel Albus Dumbledore and a squad of Aurors was damned near as bad!

Harry really didn't get the whole politics thing, but he was happy that Andromeda was on his side. She'd already begun inserting other little counter pieces into the Prophet, offsetting the Ministry's condemning 'pronouncements'. Nothing blatant or obviously counter to the ministry position, Andromeda had warned him that anything like that would probably be edited or even removed entirely by Ministry sympathizers within the Prophet, but enough that the letters to the editor were pretty balanced by people who hated him and people who defended him.

If Harry was reading the trends in the paper correctly, something Andromeda would undoubtedly grade him on next time she stopped by, the Ministry wasn't happy with the lack of impact they were having overall. The Ministry articles were getting more blatant and overtly hostile with every paper, making Harry wonder how long until something broke and what direction it was going to take when it did.

Unless he was very much mistaken, Harry James Potter was quite certain that he was in for yet another interesting year.


	111. Chapter 111

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Junkyard, Sunnydale Ca.

"Xander, do you even have a permit to drive this thing?" Willow demanded, aghast as she looked at the matte black motorcycle her friend was fawning over.

"Course not, I just got it." Xander shrugged, "but how hard could it be? Sirius had me out running it around the yard already, it's easy to drive. You want to try?"

"No!" She shrank away, clearly horrified at the thought.

"Besides," Sirius offered from where he was working at the other end of the building, "The magical world doesn't regulate travel mostly, except for portkeys and apparition."

"Really? Why?"

"Why what?" Sirius looked puzzled, "Why don't they regulate most forms, or why do they regulate those two?"

"Both." Willow looked exasperated.

"Oh," He blinked, "Well Apparition and portkeys are dangerous."

"And this…. Thing," Willow glowered at the motorcycle, "Isn't?"

"No more than a broomstick," Sirius shrugged, "safer than that, really, since you can etch some major runes into the steel this baby is built out of."

"Oh." Willow was set back slightly.

She'd tried flying on broomsticks and, while she shared Xander's general dislike of the things, it had been ok and reasonably safe once she got over her fear of heights. The black monster bike Xander was so proud of looked so… dangerous compared to a Broomstick, however, that she couldn't quite get her head wrapped around the fact that Sirius believed it to be safer.

"Are you sure?"

"I built it!" He defended the bike.

Willow rolled her eyes, "Right. I'll ask an adult."

"Hey!"

Xander just grinned, ignoring the two as he straddled the old Indian and mock twisted the throttle. Since it ran on magic, there was no gas in the tank, so Sirius had made that into an expanded space storage unit. He could fit a small wardrobe in the gas tank with ease.

_That will make packing easy._

"Hey, Sirius," Xander interrupted the argument in progress, "Will this thing portkey across the Atlantic?"

Willow's eyes widened, a truly horrified look on her face.

"Yeah, sure, but make certain you do it from really high up." Sirius said.

"How high?"

The older man frowned, scratching his head for a moment. "Well I'm not sure actually. I could get Moony to calculate it for you."

"Please."

"You are NOT taking that to England, are you?" Willow blurted.

"Harry showed up at school once in a car," Xander grinned, "but he ruined it by wrecking the thing on arrival. I think this will one up him."

"The very best reason to do anything," Sirius said, grinning even as he made a note to help Harry do Xander one better in the near future. _Now what is one better than a flying motorcycle? Damn it, nothing is one better than a flying motorcycle!_

The Marauder shrugged it off, he'd come up with something. Maybe portkeying through Hogwarts wards, though that was something that they'd have to be really careful about. Failing would be spectacular, alright, a spectacular mess.

_Eh, we'll come up with something._

"You'll have to be careful in England, though," Sirius warned after he gathered his thoughts. "Legally the bike is a grey area. Technically it's illegal, but I snuck this bike through a few loopholes I learned when I built my own."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, you can't charm muggle objects to be magic," Sirius explained, "but I didn't use any charms on this, it's all runic and permanent enchanting. That's technically legal."

Willow scrunched up her face, confused, "Why?"

"Well, it's because so few people have the education, skill, and power to do it," Sirius admitted, "Charming stuff is cheap and easy, anyone can do it. Making something like this? Not so much. Legally, each branch of magic is considered a different act, so they would have needed separate laws for each. The Wizengamot is a lazy bunch, though, and they like their loopholes as much as anyone so…"

He shrugged casually.

"Unbelievable." Willow shook her head.

Xander just grinned, looking over at her. "You want a drive?"

Willow looked at the bike, eyes wide and her face clearly horrified, but then she couldn't help but look at Xander as he lounged easily back in the wide seat, an easy smile on his face. She reddened slightly, thinking about all the working out he'd been doing and how many muscles he must have to do some of the stuff he had done in the yard.

"Willow? Willow?"

The redhead shook herself free of the entrapping thoughts, eyes snapping up to lock on Xander's own before she managed to blurt out a response.

"There's only seat for one!"

Willow closed her eyes, grimacing. _Really? That's the best response I could come up with? I'm such a fool._

Xander wasn't fazed, however, "Well you could sit on my lap…?"

Willow suddenly blazed so red that Xander thought for sure she was about to spontaneously combust, enough so that he hurriedly corrected his statement. "Or we could just use the magical passenger seat."

"Magical passenger seat?" Willow squeaked out.

Xander laughed, tripping the rune set that deployed an extended seat behind him. It sort of ruined the look of the old bike, in his opinion, but it was similar to the issued seats that came with the original models and served a purpose. "Hop on."

Willow swallowed hard, but her expression suddenly cleared and the fear and horror was replaced by what Xander recognized all too well. Her resolve face in place, Willow stomped forward and climbed on the back, clutching to the seat under her for dear life.

"Willow, hang on to me," Xander said over his shoulder.

"What?" Willow cringed as she squeaked again.

Xander took her arm and wrapped it around his midsection firmly, "Hold on to me. The bike is charmed to keep you from falling off, but they're not going to be able to handle it if you really go flying."

Willow slid forward instantly, clutching tightly around his middle for dear life even though the bike wasn't even running.

That changed an instant later as Xander kicked the starter and the machine roared to life.

"Wait!" Willow screamed.

"What?" Xander yelled back over his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we have helmets?"

"Stop thinking like a non-magical!" Xander grinned, putting the bike in gear as he aimed his wand at the garage door and caused it to open smoothly.

"Xander!" Willow screamed as the old Indian roared out of the shop, pulling up and smoothly lifting into the air just past the threshold.

Her stomach dropped out of her body, causing Willow to clutch hard to Xander and press her eyes close together as the bike roared under his control. She felt the tugging force of acceleration trying to pull her away from Xander, but Willow was having absolutely none of that and only held on tighter. It took several long moments before she realized that Xander was only wearing a light t-shirt and that he had some _very_ tight abs underneath it.

That was the moment that she opened her eyes and realized that they had to be hundreds of feet over Sunnydale, and the view drove even thoughts of Xander's abs from her mind.

"Oh wow."

She'd never had the guts to take a broom more than a couple dozen feet into the air, and had certainly never seen Sunnydale from this angle before. She gazed for a long moment before a thought struck her.

"Xander!"

"What?"

"Won't we be seen?"

Xander laughed, "No, don't worry. Sirius put some really cool layered runes on this thing. There's a notice me not effect, and under that he put another effect that makes people think they're looking at an ultralight airplane in case we do something to break the field."

"Oh," Willow said, "That's really very smart."

"Yeah, surprised me too." Xander grinned as he leaned the bike over and into a tight turn that brought them out over the beach.

Willow squealed, clutching at him again. "Don't DO that!"

"Have to Wills," Xander said, "Sirius used self-conjuring road surface runes for this one. Look down and behind us."

Willow ground her teeth and forced herself to do as he asked, looking behind them and was shocked to see a glowing purple trail behind them that was shattering in millions of fading pieces just a couple meters behind them. "How the heck is anyone supposed to ignore that?"

Xander shook his head, "Tell you what, we'll check the arithmancy when we get back, ok?"

Willow nodded, "deal!"

Half distracted by the promise of math, Willow found the rest of the flight far more enjoyable. She even managed to discreetly cop a couple feels, making Xander squirm and blush enough for her to see the red flush crawling up the back of his neck. Willow found herself really quite disappointed when the bike came in for a, mostly, smooth landing back at the yard.

"So?" Xander asked as he killed the engine and put down the kickstand. "What do you think?"

"Maybe it's not such a horrible machine," Willow said grudgingly.

Xander grinned and shook his head, "That's as close as I'm going to get to approval, isn't it?"

"You bet your butt, mister." She nodded firmly.

"I'll take it."

"Now, you promised me some math," Willow said firmly, heart still racing from both the flight and the close proximity to Xander.

"A deal is a deal," Xander conceded, gesturing back to where he kept his 'lab'.

Sirius watched them go, smiling at the sight of the two, and spared some thoughts for his Godson.

_I wonder if Harry has a girl yet? James had already cut his way through half of Gryffindor and a third of the Puff and Claw girls by this age._

Sirius conveniently permitted himself to forget that his numbers were optimistic in the extreme, and in actuality James Potter really only had one love in his entire life. He'd chased a lot of skirts in his younger years, but was always careful not to catch any that wanted to be caught. Too many girls, even during their younger years, looked at James as a ticket to an easy life.

Sirius himself never had that 'problem'. He fondly remembered 'catching' a good many girls who wanted to be caught. A fun fling was always easy to end by simply letting it slip that he'd been disowned.

_Only found one girl who stuck around after that, and I should damned well have married her._

* * *

Zero Zero One, Cemetery Lane - Westfield, New Jersey.

Wednesday Addams calmly looked over her preparations, carefully noting the materials and calculations. Everything had to be prepared for the solstice. She didn't know for certain whether they would begin then, however it would not do to be found lacking on this matter.

A tapping on her door caused the teenage girl to turn, "Come in, mother."

Morticia Addams stepped easily into the room, her motions belying the tight fit of her dress. "Dear, I believe we need to have a word."

Wednesday looked at her mother coolly for a moment, then nodded to the seat by the bed. Morticia silently took the offered seat, eyes falling to the preparations laid out on the bed. She sighed, nodding slowly, "We suspected."

"You're familiar with it?"

"Not this one specifically, dear, but the materials you've been gathering all point to one plan. Grandmamma is very worried." Morticia said seriously.

"Tell her not to be." Wednesday said calmly. "I'm not."

"Wednesday, dear, have you thought this through? There are always temptations, but we're Addams." Morticia said, "We do not give in to our weaknesses."

Wednesday sniffed, "please, mother. I know what I am doing. I'm not giving into my weaknesses, I am conquering them."

Morticia sighed, "I'm certain that Alexander is a very fine boy, but if this is his idea…"

Wednesday glared openly at her, something that Morticia had only rarely experienced. She did not, however, glare back as she had in the past. This wasn't an adult facing off against an unruly child, this was a mother concerned for the young woman her daughter had become.

"Alexander would never." Wednesday said simply, "He does not yet know."

"Be that as it may," Morticia said, the statement not surprising her in the least, "however, dear, he is but a boy. The temptation…"

"Is his sacrifice." Wednesday said calmly, "as trust is mine."

Morticia sighed as she saw a look of beatific calm on her daughter's face, knowing then that there was no way to talk her out of it. "I see. Very well, what more do you need for your preparations?"


	112. Chapter 112

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Wednesday walked calmly down the streets of Sunnydale, a single bag in one hand. She'd arrived through the Harris family Floo only to be told that Xander wasn't living there over the summer. She would have been put out, but the frilly pinkness of the newly decorated home left her pleased that he had the wisdom to bolt from that horror as quickly as he had.

She'd been introduced to his new sister before she made her own escape, but all she could see was that the poor child matched the décor. It was truly horrible.

Having barely made it out with what sanity she could muster, Wednesday immediately headed for the old junkyard. Xander had mentioned that he'd bought it, she could recall, but she hadn't really understood why to be honest. As it turned out she now had to check his bloodline for precognitive traits, because obviously he'd seen that… pink… coming.

The gates were open this time, so she didn't have to sneak in, which she supposed was something of a pity. Still, needs must, and the direct approach had its benefits as well.

A man tried to stop her at the gate, but she just stared at him until he backed off. Wednesday smiled to herself as she heard him mutter the word 'Addams' under his breath. She felt pride in few things, most parts of her life simply existed, but the Clan… the Clan was something she was proud of. Its reputation, especially.

She half turned to the man, "Where is Alexander."

He just pointed wordlessly before he turned and bolted. It was enough.

She found Alexander in the center of a large shop space, tinkering with a motorcycle of all things. He was covered in grease, an old torn shirt barely hanging onto his body, and she stopped in her footsteps to watch him as he worked. He looked… different without the school robes.

"Oh! Wednesday!"

The Addams scion shook herself from her reverie, the only hint of her thoughts was a slight twist to the right corner of her mouth as she turned to the speaker.

"Willow," Wednesday drawled, stretching out the name. "I have something I wish to speak with you about… later."

Willow stared for a moment, confused, but she nodded slowly, "Ok. Xander didn't tell me you were coming…"

"That would be because I didn't know," Xander said as he walked over, attracted by the shout. He smiled widely at Wednesday, "Hey Wens, I'd give you a hug but…"

"You will not," She said, eyeing his grease covered clothing. "I will accept a kiss."

His eyes widened and Xander almost took a step back, clearly shocked.

She smirked at him, amused, and pointed lightly to her right cheek, "Here, or," She offered her hand to him, palm down.

Xander recovered, reasonably quickly, and smiled as he bent over her hand and lightly kissed her knuckles. "As you wish."

Wednesday struggled, trying to force herself not to react, but she could feel the faint heat running to her cheeks and knew from Xander's expression that he'd spotted the blush, however faint it might have been. She took her hand back and turned away, partly to hide the blush and partly to keep herself from killing Xander for the brazen attempt at making her do so.

Her eyes fell on Willow, and she noted the downcast expression. The redhead had understood the jibe just as well, but it was clear that she wasn't taking it as the nearly casual flirting that Wednesday knew it to be.

_This is… perfect,_ She thought, dark eyes glittering as she took in Willow's reaction. It was clear, now as it had been before, that Willow was more than merely Xander's friend… whether he knew it or not. Under most circumstances, Wednesday knew that she would likely be plotting the redhead's demise. She had not been brought up to share, not on anyone's terms but her own at least.

"We need to talk," She told Willow simple, then glanced at Xander. "A room."

"You staying?" He asked, clearly amused.

"I am."

"Down the stairs," He pointed, "The basement's been converted into living quarters, magic lab, that sort of thing. Willow knows which room is mine, take your pick of the rest."

She inclined her head, then dragged Willow past Xander toward the stairs.

Xander watched them go, amused and bemused, then whistled off tune to himself as he walked back to the bike and went back to work on it.

"This will do." Wednesday nodded, looking around the room.

It was far from luxury, of course, but it was well enough appointed and it felt delightfully dank.

"You can turn on the heat here," Willow reached for a thermostat.

"Leave it." Wednesday ordered, a slight smile on her face, "this is perfect."

"Really?" Willow scrunched up her nose, "I… if you say so."

"I do," Wednesday said, closing the subject and turning to Willow. "Now, we need to speak."

Willow shifted uncomfortably, "I… k-kind of thought we were."

If Wednesday hadn't already known the impressive mind that existed within the redhead's skull, she would have been far less disgusted with her actions. She also wouldn't have bothered to pay any further attention to the girl, which might have been a mistake. People always managed to surprise her, Wednesday found… usually for the worse.

"You love Xander."

"What?" Willow blurted, eyes wide as she shook her head, "N-no, I mean…"

"You love him, or…" Wednesday shrugged, "you think you do. At this time it's likely a mere infatuation, but that doesn't matter. You believe it to be love."

Willow swallowed, then sighed and nodded, "I do."

Wednesday looked at her for a long moment, the silence stretching on. Finally, she spoke, "I'm going to sleep with him this year."

Willow reacted much like a bomb had been dropped in the room, her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped as she tried to speak though nothing was coming out.

"Well, to be honest," Wednesday went on, "I don't expect there to be much sleeping involved."

Willow staggered, leaning into the door frame of the room. She'd had some expectations of Wednesday being interested in Xander, but this was beyond anything she'd imagined in her worst nightmares.

"I… I… You… He…"

Wednesday observed the mental breakdown with a passive kind of interest, Willow was turning several fascinating colors to be sure. She was tempted to let it continue in the direction it was currently going, but that would be counterproductive. Still, she suspected that the direction she was about to take would accomplish just as much.

"I've offered him to two other girls as well." Wednesday said simply, "and as I require one more for the set, I'd like you to consider joining us."

Thud.

Wednesday walked over and looked down at the unconscious redhead.

"She survived." Wednesday said after she spotted the rise and fall of Willow's chest.

"Pity."

The Addams child reached down, grabbed Willow's arm, and pulled her body into the room. The door swung shut of its own accord a few seconds later.

Xander finished putting his bike back together, reasonably confident that he understood how Sirius had configured the runes and charms. It wasn't that complicated, honestly, once he saw it all laid out. He was surprised, but then he was always very well aware that sometimes the biggest hurtle to any job was just figuring out how to do it in the first place.

Certainly his wands worked like that, the initial ideas were completely bonkers, but once they figured out the process it was actually pretty easy.

Speaking of which, Xander stood up and made his way over to the work bench that held an array of nearly twenty different wands in various states of completion. He had half a dozen variations on his standard twelve to fourteen inch models, all combination core wands. The Wednesday/Basilisk cores functioned well, frighteningly well for curses, which hadn't surprised him at all. It was the Willow/Unicorn wands that actually spooked him a little and made him rethink things.

Either his friend's hair had an odd reaction with Unicorn hair, or he might need to rethink what he knew about Willow's personality. Even _Wednesday's_ hair hadn't caused the Unicorn tail hair to spontaneously _combust_. Willow hair and Dragon heart strings, however, meshed well and provided a much stronger all-purpose wand than he had expected. Decent at everything, with a slight edge in Charms and Transfigurations, it came within a few hairs of matching his Ollivander Wand.

The rest of the wands in construction on his bench were ones he was tinkering with the sheath design for. Shorter hold out wands, like the ones he'd used to deflect Malfoy's jinxes during his prank, some longer ones he was testing to see if he could extend his casting range, and a few where he was playing with the material itself. As was normal, Willow and her obsession with research had turned up a few new developments in materials sciences for him to try.

At the moment Xander was working on aligning the molecules of the carbon wands to allow magical power to transmit more efficiently. It was slow going, since there just wasn't anything in the magical world that focused on manipulating _atoms_, so he had to design it. Xander was a little surprised that no one else had thought of it, to be honest, it wasn't actually hard to transfigure on an atomic scale. The main failing was it was damnably difficult to confirm and repeat simply because you couldn't see to that level.

He had picked up a few old microscopes from some government auctions, though, and they were helping him get the job done. At some point he'd have to get an electron scanning scope, he supposed, but for now the dissecting models were actually enough.

No, he couldn't see atoms with them, but he could get a really excellent idea of the 'grain' of the material and make his changes on that level. It would be enough to experiment with, he could improve on it later. Through the ninety times scope he could see the texture of the carbon as he laid the current blank he was working under its gaze, this one a Carbon Fiber blank that he was modifying to suit his needs.

He'd already confirmed that Willow's suggestion had merit, using a crudely altered graphite blank. By forcing a molecular alignment he'd increased the power going through the wand by at least five percent, which was certainly significant. Now it was time for a more serious experiment.

Xander used his Ollivander wand, still the best all-purpose design he had and, save for curses, the best overall wand in his possession, and cut out tiny slots in the carbon fiber blank. When he was done it looked like a circuit board that was wrapped into a cylinder, which was the goal. Next he just added the core materials, Willow hair and Dragon heartstring, and then he prepped everything for the final step.

Under the ninety times magnification of the scope Xander carefully twitched his wand while his eyes were glued to the binocular eyepieces, something that had taken him a fair amount of practice to master, and began layering the softer graphite into the circuit lines he'd cut earlier. The most difficult and time consuming part of it was ensuring that the graphite was aligned correctly, however, and he had to back up and redo his work often.

So focused on his task was he that Xander barely noted the passing of time and the thought of were Willow and Wednesday were never once entered into his thoughts.

* * *

Willow groaned, moving slowly as light returned to her world.

"I just had the strangest nightmare." She mumbled, shaking her head.

"What, pray tell, made it a nightmare? Having sex with Xander, or sharing him with me?"

Willow's eyes bulged as she bolted upright in bed, staring at Wednesday in shock as she found the other girl sitting calmly in an office chair across the room.

"I… You…" Willow mumbled, "We…? Xander?"

"Indeed," Wednesday said, eyeing the redhead with a degree of pity… or perhaps condescension.

Honestly, Willow wasn't entirely sure which it was.

"Here, read this." Wednesday said, offering her a large thick book.

Willow accepted it, with just a little suspicion, and turned it around so she could read the section Wednesday had it open to. She paused after reading the section title and brief description, eyes widening again as she looked up to Wednesday. The Addams girl just stared back, her expression devoid of any hint to her thoughts.

Willow bowed her head and went back to reading, suddenly deeply interested in the subject matter.

* * *

"Ah, Miss Granger," Minerva McGonagall smiled tightly at her favorite student, "It's pleasant to see you again."

"You as well, professor," Hermione said, a little quizzically, "May I ask why you're here?"

The professor had knocked politely on the door to her parents' house, but Hermione was the only one home at the time as her parents vacation didn't begin for another few days.

"I wanted to deliver this in person," Minerva said, holding out a badge.

Hermione's eyes widened as she recognized it for what it was, "Professor… I…"

Minerva smiled, her voice chiding, "who else did you believe would warrant it this year?"

"I… well, I'd hoped," Hermione admitted, trailing off.

The professor chuckled softly, "You've earned it. With it, I would like to ask a favor of you."

"A favor?"

"When we do the muggle-born orientation every year, I invite prefects to help out," Minerva said, "Normally I use seventh year prefects, but in your case it seemed to me that perhaps a younger face with similar experiences might be useful."

"Of course, Ma'am, I'd be honored."

"Excellent, I'll owl you with the exact date once arrangements have been made," Minerva said, "we'll meet in London, of course. That won't be a problem?"

"No, no problem." Hermione said, "Do you know, more or less, when?"

"Not for a few weeks," Minerva said, "the final day depends on several factors, including the birthdays of the children involved, and their parents' schedule."

"Oh, yes, of course," Hermione nodded, "I'll be prepared when you call on me."

"I had no doubt," Minerva said, "I'll take my leave now. Do enjoy the rest of your vacation, and congratulations on the prefecture. You most certainly earned it, Miss Granger."

* * *

Xander whistled slightly as he ambled, literally _ambled_, back into the junkyard. He was feeling more relaxed and in a better mood than he had for months at least. Hogwarts was awesome, but at the best of times there was a tension below the surface that built up over the year.

_Probably why Harry always has some huge adventure toward the end of the year, needs to break up the tension._

He hadn't seen hide or hair of Willow or Wednesday since the latter had arrived, but that wasn't altogether unusual for Wednesday and he took the opportunity to spend some time with Jessie and the guys. They'd played a couple short modules from Dungeons and Dragons and Mage, then broke into a new card game that the guys had called Magic.

It was good fun, Xander'd bought a box on the spot. It was tucked under his arm now as he made his way into the shop where his bike was resting on its stand. He set the box of cards down on the bench and did a slow tour of the bike, with a grin he couldn't quite wipe off, then looked back to the bench and his current projects.

As always, he seemed to be drowning in projects, but he just couldn't help it. There were so many things he wanted to try with Magic, and it all seemed like top priority. He was still manufacturing wands, of course, but that had almost become routine in short order. The hardest part now was aligning the carbon molecules for better conductivity of magic, but he had an equation for an enchantment in mind that might solve that bottleneck. Everything else was pro-forma, aside from whatever experimental core he was playing with at the time.

He was still working on his doorway, making minor and not so minor improvements as he went along, and the communicators were about as good as he could make them for now.

Xander turned his attention to an old TV he'd picked up, just to take apart. He didn't think he'd learn much about it, given that magic and technology tended to be at odds, but it would be an experience if nothing else. He was happily pulling the device apart when Wednesday and Willow made their reappearance from the depths of the dungeons under his shop and junkyard.

"Where have you been?" Willow asked, alternating between frowning at him and blushing hot pink and looking away. "We looked everywhere."

"Clearly not," Xander chuckled as he looked through the wires and dust of the old set, "I was out with Jessie and the guys."

"Oh." Willow drooped a little, not quite meeting his eyes.

Xander briefly wondered what that was about, but considering Wednesday likely had a hand in it, he figured he probably didn't want to know.

"What are you doing?" Wednesday entered the conversation, her cool monotone offsetting Willow's slightly hyperactive babble quite nicely.

"Just checking the guts of this thing, seeing if maybe I can get any ideas from it," Xander answered as he drew his carbon wand and used it to snip some connections.

Willow looked closer and frowned, her mind clearly distracted from whatever had been distracting her, "Xander, be careful… the capacitors in those can hold a charge for…"

The loud buzzing sound that drowned her out was, in turn, drowned out by Xander's pained gurgle as he touched something wrong with his left hand and it felt like a thousand angry bees were running all the way through his arm into his chest. He jerked his other hand out and screamed as a bolt of raw magic tore out of his wand and _vaporized_ the wall of the shop.

Wednesday hauled Willow down and out of the way as Xander jerked back and hit the wall behind him, slumping to the ground in pain.

The threat of being disintegrated passed, Willow and Wednesday rushed across the shop to where he was panting hard on the ground, eyes crossed.

"Please don't ever let me do that again," Xander whimpered.

"You idiot!" Willow hissed, "You almost killed yourself."

Wednesday, however, was looking behind her to the hole where a wall had been, and beyond that to the utterly destroyed rows of old cars that had absorbed the force of Xander's magic.

"Himself," She asked, mildly put out, "He very nearly killed _us_."

Wednesday looked back at Xander evenly, "Very impressive."

Xander groaned, "I'd be happier with that compliment if I weren't dying here, Wens."

The Addams scion merely rolled her eyes and pulled him up, "You will live, or I will make your shade wish dearly that it had. I'm not quite finished with you, yet."

Xander shot her a quizzical look through pained eyes, "What?"

"You'll see," She said, only the slightest tinge of color brushing her cheeks at that.

Xander looked over to Willow, to see if she knew what Wednesday was talking about, but the redhead was blushing so profusely that he was immediately distracted by worries about her health.

"Willow, I didn't hit you did I? Are you ok?"

"N.. no," She stammered, "I'm ok."

Xander nodded, getting painfully to his feet.

"Should you be moving? We should get a doctor…"

"He survived vacations with my family," Wednesday said dryly, "He'll be fine."

Xander chuckled painfully, but gently patted Willow on the shoulder, "I feel like every muscle in my body is staging a revolt, but I'll live. Merlin, would you look at that."

Wednesday and Willow turned to see the damage wrought by the accident as Xander limped over to it himself. He paused to check his wand, but didn't see any damage as he then moved on to the hole blasted through the wall.

"It appeared to be raw, unrefined magic," Wednesday said, "far more powerful than I would have predicted you were capable of."

"I'd be hurt by that," Xander replied, "but this is more than I would have predicted I was capable of too. Damn, it's lucky you two weren't hurt."

They walked out into the junkyard, through the corridor carved out of the wrecked cars. Some of the metal was still glowing hot and smoking. Small fires burned where rubber or gasoline had been close enough to catch, yet far enough to avoid being entirely vaporized.

"What do you suppose happened?" Willow asked, frowning.

"Something to do with nearly electrocuting myself, I'm guessing," Xander answered.

"The electricity was converted into magic," Wednesday guessed, "presumably by the wand?"

"Huh," Xander looked back along the path of destruction he'd caused, "That's interesting. I wonder how we can duplicate it, minus the electrocution of course…"

Willow blinked, considering it for a moment, then looked at the destroyed materials, "Are you sure you want to?"

Xander shrugged.

She had a point, he supposed. Pure destruction like that had limited uses, but it _did_ have uses. Still, he'd much rather see if it could be harnessed.

"I rather think we do," Wednesday answered, "If only to determine exactly what happened."

Xander nodded, "Yeah."

Willow considered, then she too was in agreement, "New project?"

"New project," Xander and Wednesday spoke together.

* * *

Robert looked over the old junkyard as the sun rose, setting the wrecks against a glorious view of the sea beyond. This was the first time he'd set foot in Sunnydale in, well a good many years. Normally people came to him, but he was interested enough to make an exception in this case. Young Alexander was one to watch, he believed. The young man was already making waves in various quarters, certainly the Lavelles were watching carefully, and even the Harris clan was starting to take note. Most of them were watching and recognizing the political connections he was making, some paid more attention to the not so small fortune he was gathering with his potions patent, but Robert saw more than any of that.

The boy was a creator, someone who wasn't satisfied with good enough, and those sorts of people tended to do more than merely accumulate wealth.

Robert had once known someone similar, not a Wizard… more's the pity, but both a creator and a brilliant mind. Unfortunately he'd not been worldly enough to control his creations, and he'd died penniless and the world was infinitely poorer for it.

_Nicola would have appreciated this place_, Robert noted with a grin as he walked through the piles of junked cars and other things sorted into large stacks. He paused as he reached one place, however, and blinked in genuine puzzlement. _What on Earth?_

There was a column of pure destruction, cut right through the center line of the yard. He looked up the long cut, noting that it had torn through the fence at the far end and burrowed a chunk of the hill beyond. Robert leaned heavily on his cane and shook his head.

_Somehow I'm now terrified of the thought of Nikola being anywhere **near** this place. Wizards._

He sighed and turned to walk in, carefully stepping over the burnt section of wall and into the shop, noting that Sam and Sirius were both already there.

"Do I want to know what happened?" The old man asked wearily.

"We don't know."

"You don't know what happened?" Robert frowned.

"Don't know that either." Sirius shrugged.

Robert turned to Sam, his expression stern, but the other man just held up his hands.

"Don't look at me, Robert," Sam said, "The kids won't say what the hell they did. All I know is that it's set off a major project. Xander's cancelled everything else, including training."

Robert looked back at the devastation and tried to figure out what sort of spell would have done that.

_Fiendfyre? No, the place is still standing._

He'd seen a lot in his time, but this wasn't like any spell he'd known. It rather looked like some incidents of accidental magic, only magnitudes more powerful.

"They won't say what happened?"

Sam shook his head, "the three of them basically said that we'd have to take the information over their dead bodies."

Robert grunted, "Good."

"Good?" Sirius glanced over, "Why?"

"Means they're learning. Secrets are power in the magical world, Black. No sense handing power out to just anyone." Robert said, "They say anything else?"

"Just that it's important," Sam shrugged.

"Well, that means I've wasted a trip," Robert sighed. "Where are they?"

"Basement lab, working." Sam answered. "Door is sealed, but Black could break it."

Robert waved off the offer, "How about I try?"

He walked over to the door and thumped a few times with his cane, then leaned back on it to wait. After a couple moments there was a scrabbling sound and the door slid open, a redhead poking her face out.

"Yes? We're busy."

"Please inform Alexander that Robert is here." Robert said calmly.

"Oh, right, Xander said you'd be coming," Willow perked up, "Come on down."

"Thank you."

She stepped aside and he entered, letting the door shut firmly behind him as she drew a carbon black wand and cast a quick locking charm. Robert was mildly amused, knowing that any charm cast by a young witch with no formal schooling was unlikely to keep out a determined non-magical, let alone Lord Black, but the idea was there at least.

"Xander's in here," She gestured as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

He was led to a large workshop, scattered with power tools and magical paraphernalia, quite unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Few magicals used Dewalt power tools, after all.

"Robert!" Xander poked his head up from, "Welcome, sorry for the mess."

"Cleaner here than up top, kid," Robert chuckled dryly. "Don't suppose you'd like to inform me as to what happened?"

"Sorry, no," Xander shook his head, "We're telling no one. But come over here for a sec, will ya?"

Robert made his way over, can clacking against the cement floor, and looked over what Xander had been working on. "So what's this then?"

It looked like a hockey glove, wrapped in duct tape, sprouting wires or something similar.

"An experiment."

Robert did a double take, only then noting the dark girl who'd somehow appeared at his side. He put a hand over his heart, taking a deep breath.

"And you, child, must be the Addams. Please, my old heart can't take what it used to, don't sneak up on me like that." Robert smiled personably.

"I'll take that under advisement," She said looking him over tightly, "You're a squib."

"I am."

"Excellent," She nodded to Xander, "let him try."

Robert glanced over to see Xander nodded, "Right. Here, Robert, try this on."

Robert found the duct tape glove shoved down over his hand, something cool brushing his fingers inside. It was indeed a hockey glove, but they'd cut it and drilled and done various other atrocities to it before apparently wrapping it entirely in duct tape. Along the cuff he felt a heavy weight, more than the padding would explain.

"What is this supposed to do?" The old man asked curiously.

"Absolutely nothing," Xander said, "here, take this too."

Robert automatically accepted what was offered, noting that it was a carbon black wand very similar to the one that the redhead had used. He presumed that they were the wands that Xander was making, but it hardly mattered.

"I can't power a wand, Alexander," He said, just a hint of the old regret in his voice.

"Wave it." Wednesday said dully, eyes piercing him.

"What?"

"Wave it, Robert," Xander ordered, no question about _that_ tone.

Robert sighed, but did as he was bade. His heart almost burst as bright sparks erupted from the tip of the wand, showering the room in red and blue.

"It worked!" Willow cheered.

"What have you done?" Robert whispered, shocked to his core.

Xander shook his head, taking the wand and the glove back.

"We can't tell you," He said, regretfully, "Not now, probably not ever. This is too big. Even I can see that."

"You gave me magic?"

"No," Wednesday shook her head, "We merely… augmented it."

"The glove," Robert's sharp eyes locked on the silver grey glove, wondering just what it was that the Duct Tape was hiding.

"Partly," Xander confirmed, "but only partly. We're… years from anything useable here, Robert, at best."

"Augmented," Robert's mind locked in on that word, and he glanced involuntarily upward, "that's what happened topside. You blasted the yard with augmented magic."

"Again, partly," Xander hedged, "we won't share the details…"

"After seeing that I know why," Robert mumbled, "Wizards would kill for far less."

"Not merely Wizards," Wednesday said, eyes locked with him. "I assume you know what my clan will do to you if you betray us?"

Robert shook himself clear of his thoughts, eyes matching hers, "I assure you, child, I have no intentions of betraying anyone. I'm an old man, this wouldn't be more than mere amusement for me, and I don't know many people I'd trust with it either. I'm surprised that you showed me even this much."

"The fact that it can be done is…" Xander considered his words, "bad enough to release, but we needed to see what would happen with a low magical. In theory, this could even allow a non-magical to cast…"

"Possibly," Wednesday cut him off, "however we have yet to see if a non-magical could shape the magic."

"True."

Robert nodded, leaning heavily on his cane, "My advice is to tell no one. Not even that you've done it, Alexander, not even that it's possible. In fact…"

He sighed, closing his eyes, "Can any of you manage an Obliviation?"

The three teens shared a nervous glance before Wednesday stepped forward, "I can."

"Do it. Take my memory," He told her, "I deal with too many magicals, and some of them are nosy bastards. I can't protect my mind from them."

Wednesday looked at him evenly for a long moment, then nodded, "Very well."

Robert looked evenly at Xander, "Whatever you do, Alexander, be very careful about releasing this. You could change the world with just what you've shown me here, and I've no doubt you kept a lot back. Some powers don't belong in the hands of men."

Xander nodded seriously as Wednesday brought up her wand with a slash and jab.

"Obliviate," She intoned darkly.

Robert slumped, then shook his head, and looked around for a moment, "So this is where you've been hiding yourself? Don't suppose you want to tell me what happened top side?"

"I'm afraid not, Robert," Xander said with a sad sort of smile. "Come on, I'll make time for training."

"Good lad."

* * *

Willow and Wednesday sat, perched on the smooth hood of an otherwise wrecked car, watching as Xander ran the yard with Fenrir. He and the dog almost literally flew over the wrecks, bounding up and over some piled five high with an ease that Willow was in awe of and even Wednesday found somewhat impressive. He'd been at it for twenty minutes, and was now covered in a sheen of sweat that stuck his shirt to his form and beaded off his face as he grinned and dared his familiar to catch him.

"Have you considered the offer?" Wednesday asked, not looking aside at Willow. It was her estimation that the redhead would be better able to respond if she felt that she wasn't being too closely observed. "You may have the Summer solstice, if you so choose."

"This summer?" Willow squeaked, turning rapidly red.

Uncharacteristically, Wednesday hesitated. She wanted to say no, to tell Willow that it would be the following summer. Her pride, she knew, wanted to claim that first time with Xander for herself. It was slightly foolish, it wasn't some issue of young love, it was a ritual and it didn't matter who went first.

She didn't say no, however, and instead merely shrugged.

"If you wish," She said, then offered, "Or you may take next summer."

Wednesday ceased breathing, listening for Willow's reaction, she'd done it. Offered up her pride as a sacrifice to the existing friendship that bound Willow and Xander. Now it was just a question of whether Willow would take what was offered, or let her fears rule her. Wednesday suspected strongly which would happen, but it was outside her control now.

Willow sighed, clearly relieved.

"I… I'll do it," She replied, blushing furiously, "Next summer."

Wednesday smiled, a hint of victory and a hint of sadness hiding deep in her impassive features. She had her choice, but the fear Willow was giving into had tainted her own victory with the taste of ash. Willow was a friend, not of the Clan, but her friend nonetheless. She should be stronger than that.

Wednesday decided then that she _would_ be stronger than that… or she would break.

Either way, things would be interesting in the future.

"Very well," Wednesday said aloud, "We will inform Xander together."

"We?" Willow squeaked, eyes wide as they darted between Xander and Wednesday.

"Yes," Wednesday said firmly, "We."

Wednesday turned to Willow, dropping a hand on the redhead's shoulder, "You can do this."

Willow swallowed hard, but nodded.

* * *

Xander grabbed a towel as he made his way back to the shop. He didn't see the girls anywhere, they must have gotten tired watching his workout he supposed. He'd needed to clear his head, the new discovery had just set him spinning.

He didn't even know what the hell he was going to do with it right now. It sure as hell wasn't practical, not as far as he could tell at least. Just waving that wand around had drained the batteries they'd packed into the glove, and it had barely boosted Robert at all if Xander were correct. Batteries just couldn't pump out the power nearly fast enough to keep up with a magical draw.

Capacitors, like the ones that almost fried him, could discharge effectively instantly, but that meant a one shot burst. Possibly useful, especially in a fight, except that capacitors would be drained by lightning wards almost instantly. Not great in a magical area where such wards were commonplace.

_This just brings me back to the original problem_, Xander realized. For a moment it had seemed like he'd solved the question of how to 'store' magic for a spell, but in the end it seemed like he was still right back where he'd started. Storage was an issue, one that had some limited solutions… runic arrays could store minor amounts of power, though they mostly drew it from the ether, and enchantments certainly held a charge for extended times.

None of those solved his problem, however, so Xander resolved to keep at it. What he needed was some way to carry a heavy duty power source on him, something that could charge capacitors in between uses. That was tricky, obviously, given that such things were generally rather bulky but with special manipulation he might be able to figure something out.

Xander couldn't help but grin a little, mostly at the thought of a massive diesel generator stashed in a portable hole, with wire leads linked to his wand. Funny, but impractical. He could do better than a diesel monster too, it was just a matter of designing it.

He stepped over the burnt ridge of the wall that led into his shop, idly hoping that the guys could get the materials to do repairs in the morning. It certainly wasn't the first time an experiment blew up on them, that was one good reason to buy the junkyard, but this was probably the largest to date… and, considering some of their potions mishaps, that really was saying something.

Xander checked his bike, glad that it hadn't been struck by the blast, and made sure that everything else was reasonably secured before he made his way down below.

He froze in place as he walked into his room, Willow and Wednesday were sitting there on the edge of his bed… looking at him.

Well, Wednesday was looking at him. Willow was staring at the floor and looked redder than her hair.

"Oh there's no way this is good," He mumbled, shaking his head, "Do I need a calming draught, Wens?"

"You may need more than that if you keep calling me Wens," The dark girl muttered, but Xander paid her little mind.

He knew her tells better than that, she wasn't particularly annoyed. That wasn't the same as saying she wasn't annoyed, of course, she was Wednesday after all, but he was safe from any serious pain for the moment.

_Depending on what this is all about, that is._

"I assume this has to do with why you've been shooting odd looks my way the last month or so?" Xander asked dryly.

"You noticed?" Wednesday asked, mildly surprised.

Xander, she knew, was more observant than he seemed to be but given that he seemed to be completely oblivious that wasn't really much of an improvement.

"Yeah, and I also noticed the looks I got from Fleur and Padma, so now that you've dragged Wills into it I guess it's time to spill?" Xander rolled his eyes.

Wednesday, he knew, thought she was _far_ sneakier than she actually was. She probably was sneaky, for an Addams, he supposed. However, even Draco had more subtle moments than she did. Well, intentionally subtle moments at least. Wednesday was an inherently subtle girl, her personality was very slight variations of grey that started at charcoal and slowly descended to pitch black. When she decided to act, however, she had all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.

"Padma and Fleur both couldn't look me in the eyes for a while after talking to you," He told her, "And you've been eyeing me up like you want to _play a game_, which usually doesn't mean good things for the other player as I recall?"

Wednesday smiled, genuinely pleased, "Very nice, Alexander. I underestimated you."

"You do tend to do that," Xander told her dryly, "Now stop stalling."

"I do, don't I?" Wednesday frowned then, "Well, I'll save that for later. For now, you're right, no more stalling. Read this."

Xander quirked an eyebrow as she handed him a large book, "Isn't this one of Padma's?"

"It is."

"Huh," Xander mumbled, reading the description of the ritual, skimming it quickly with the speed of long practice.

He froze partway through, then went back and read slowly and carefully. Fifteen minutes passed before he said anything, then he closed the book with a snap and looked Wednesday in the eyes.

"Not a chance."

Wednesday merely raised her eyebrow, "Oh?"

"This is a slave ritual, what are you thinking?"

She smiled openly at him, probably the most open he'd ever seen her, "That I trust you."

"You're insane," Xander mumbled, shaking his head, "of course you are, you're an Addams."

Wednesday stiffened, "Be careful of your mouth, Alexander…"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Your family are some of the greatest people I know, but they're all nuts. Good nuts, fun nuts, but nuts just the same. There's a fine line between greatness and insanity, and the Addamses are probably the ones who drew it there in the first place."

Wednesday fell silent at that, noting that while she and her family had been called insane many times in the past, it had rarely been as complimentary as what Xander had just delivered. In fact, she suspected that her father would gleefully arm himself with those very words once she told him about them.

"This… what, did you think I would focus on the ritual itself and miss the whole slave part?" Xander asked, shaking his head.

"Yes, actually," Wednesday admitted freely, "You are a boy."

"Wens, if I did this with you, your family would hunt me down and make me wish they'd merely skinned me alive," Xander shook his head, "but more than that, you're my _friend_. I'm not doing that to you…"

He glanced over to where Willow was listening avidly, now more interested than embarrassed.

"To any of _you_."

"Then do not," Wednesday shrugged, "To your first point, my family will not involve themselves. This is my decision, they will honor that no matter how it ends. To your second… the outcome is purely up to you."

Xander sighed, "Wens… why?"

"Because I wish it."

While Xander could read Wednesday better than most, he knew well enough that there were depths to her that no one, not even he, could plumb easily. Perhaps her mother, Morticia was amazing, but no one else.

Xander turned to Willow, shaking his head, "Tell me you're not really thinking about this?"

He was surprised when she jutted her chin out, firmly setting her face. It wasn't quite her resolve face, thankfully, but despite the deep red blush he knew before she spoke that she was serious.

"I agreed to do it," She told him firmly, and he could almost hear her saying so _there_ and see her sticking her tongue out at him.

Xander glared openly at Wednesday now, "You've no right dragging her into your insane plans."

"She is your oldest friend," Wednesday shrugged, "She had the right of refusal."

"And I don't?" Xander asked sardonically.

He knew enough about magic and rituals to know that this was no childhood lark to undertake, Wednesday was playing with deadly serious magics this time. He was firmly trying to forget what he… _they_ would get to… _have to_ do, and focusing on the risks.

"Of course you can refuse," Wednesday shrugged.

"Then I refuse."

"But why would you?" She continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "There is no risk to you, and no one can be forced into this. The ritual only works with voluntary participants… very voluntary, I might add."

Xander didn't need the sparkle in her eye and voice, he groaned and turned away. Wednesday had put just a hint of throaty depth to her words at the end, and he shivered.

"Damn it, Wens… This is a _bad_ idea."

"That's why it's perfect."


	113. Chapter 113

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Susan Amelia Bones glanced up as her aunt entered the large open parlor of the family home, surprised that she was home. The MLE department had been working extra hours ever since the end of the Tri-Wizard tournament, and Amelia Bones was known for working at least as hard as the most dedicated Auror in the field.

"Hello, Aunty," Susan said, smiling as she rushed over and hugged her, "I haven't seen you since I got back."

"Sorry about that, Susan," Amelia said, a weary but fond smile on her face. "It's been a rough week."

"I assume it has to do with the Tri-Wizard tournament and whoever attacked Cedric and Harry?" Susan asked.

"Technically I'm not supposed to answer that," Amelia said wryly.

"And that's answer enough."

Amelia smiled more genuinely, some of her fatigue lifting. She appreciated that Susan had a feel for the work she did, and knew how things were done. She didn't bother confirming her nieces guess, instead moving on.

"What can you tell me about Harry Potter?"

Susan hummed slightly, "Well not much, if I'm honest. He's not terribly outgoing, keeps largely to himself. Rarely seems to be really happy unless he's flying, though sometimes you can see him smile when he's with his friends."

Amelia frowned, but nodded as she checked her notes, "Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley?"

"And Xander Harris, though I don't think those two want anyone to know they're friends," Susan answered primly.

Amelia's eyes shot wider, and she almost lost her monocle in the process.

"Harris? American transfer student?"

"That's him," Susan confirmed, "Not many people know that he and Harry are friends, but sometimes Harry looks to him for help. They're good at silent signals, but you're better Aunty."

Amelia smirked, thankful that she'd taught her niece some of the more useful aspects of her job, "I am the head of the DMLE, and I got there the hard way. Still, Harris wasn't on our reports of this incident at all."

"He knows something," Susan said, "Harry looked at him when Cedric was talking to him after the tournament, like he wanted to include him, but Xander shook his head."

"Xander? I thought his name was Alexander?"

Susan shook her head, "I don't know, maybe it's a nickname, but that's what he's called."

Amelia noted that, but shook her head slightly to clear it. She was more tired than she realized, and had allowed herself to be sidetracked.

"What about Harry Potter, though? There's a push in the Ministry to discredit him right now, but I can't tell from where. Is he unstable? Dangerous?"

"Dangerous? Certainly, if the rumors are remotely true," Susan admitted, "but unstable? No. At least not visibly, I suppose he might be the 'quiet' type who snaps…"

Amelia nodded, that being close to her own read on the boy. She'd heard all the rumors as well, of course, they spread far and wide, almost as entertaining as all the boy who lived novels that spanned every type of story from children's adventure to bodice ripper by this point. Amelia had caught Susan with some of the latter type over the last year, much to her amusement and her niece's embarrassment.

"The rumors from second year may have been confirmed," Susan went on, however, startling Amelia.

She had to think hard for a moment to place which one's Susan was talking about.

"The chamber of secrets?"

Susan nodded, "My snitch in Slytherin said that Xander threatened Krum just before the Yule ball, told him that he made a pair of boots out of the last thing that hurt Hermione and that Krum looked good for a pair of gloves. His boots were made of Basilisk hide."

Amelia's mind was spinning, the idea that children had killed a basilisk both amazed and sickened her, but she spared a moment to glare playfully at Susan all the same.

"Don't call your friends 'snitches', Susan, that's really not how it works."

Susan just grinned back at her, "she doesn't mind."

Amelia sighed, shaking her head in amusement, "Fine. Still, she's sure it was Basilisk skin?"

"Yes, Aunty," Susan confirmed.

"What the hell has been going on in that school?" Amelia hissed, rubbing her face. "The DMLE should have been brought in on that from the beginning, not after it was all over to deal with that idiot Lockhart."

"Have they tracked down all the people he obliviated?" Susan asked, genuinely concerned.

Many of Lockhart's victims had been former Aurors, and for a girl who'd grown up around more battle hardened Aurors than other little girls, that almost made them each family. The idea of someone stealing their memories and accomplishments had almost made Susan physically ill when she'd heard about it.

Amelia sighed, "Almost. We think he might have done too good a job hiding some of them, but we can't prove it."

"They should have left him down there," Susan grumbled.

Amelia wouldn't contradict her niece, but she couldn't agree either. Not aloud, at any rate.

"So what is this really about, Aunty? What happened when Harry and Cedric disappeared?" Susan asked, leaning forward intently.

"Officially, I can't tell you," Amelia told her niece, then shrugged, "Unofficially… I don't know."

"What? But Aurors were there!" Susan objected, confused.

"And they've been ordered not to report…"

Susan scowled, "That's impossible, only Barty Crouch could give that order… or…"

Amelia just nodded tiredly, "Yes indeed…. Or."

"Sometimes, Aunty, I really question whether being an Auror is worth it," Susan muttered.

"You and I both," Amelia admitted, "You and I both."

"Well, if the Aurors won't…"

"Can't." Amelia corrected.

"Can't," Susan amended, reluctantly, "report… what about the headmaster?"

Amelia smiled, "Very good, unfortunately Dumbledore is playing games too. He wants me to join his little group before he talks to me."

"The Order of the Phoenix?" Susan asked, remembering that her parents had been members and the stories her Aunt had told about them. "But he knows that you're sworn to the DMLE?"

Amelia shrugged, "He does."

"That… that… arsehole!" Susan blew up, drawling a mixed look of amusement and chastisement from her aunt, "You've always told me that conflicting oaths are not to be trifled with!"

"They aren't indeed."

Susan pouted, "Well… if Dumbledore isn't talking, and the Aurors can't talk… that leaves two people left, right?"

"Yes it does, which brings me back to my original question, Susan," Amelia said, smiling, "How well do you know Harry Potter?"

* * *

Harry James Potter wasn't having the worst of summers, a surprising yet not unpleasant situation.

The Dursleys were still being Dursley-ish, of course, but he spent less and less time in the house and with the frequent visits from Andromeda and Nymphadora they'd largely opted to leave him be entirely aside from a few chores that Harry honestly didn't consider all that bad anyway.

He'd done the follow up interview that the Prophet had requested, all questions carefully screened by Andromeda of course, and that had run cleanly as a counterpoint to a previous article in which a ministry report had been leaked with Amos Diggory being quoted saying that his son had been Crucioed by Harry himself.

Cedric and Amos had both come forward the next issue, forcing a retraction thankfully, but Harry had little down some damage had been done.

Voldemort was still laying low.

Andromeda had reported that the Dark Lord was obsessed with finding out who had been training Harry, however. She hadn't come right out and asked, but he rather thought she wanted to know about the spell that could block the killing curse. The Dark Lord wanted it, and wanted it _badly_. Enough that there was pressure being put on the Ministry by Lucius to have the Wizengamot try to force Harry to reveal it, and where he'd learned it.

If it came to that, Harry didn't know what he was going to do. He couldn't tell anyone about Xander, not with the Dark Lord back. There were too many Death Eater children in Slytherin, he might as well sign Xander's death warrant. He also couldn't just hand the spell over, given that he didn't really know anything about it other than how to cast it.

Besides, just giving the Dark Lord a spell that could stop the killing curse didn't seem like the smartest move he could do.

He was just finishing up some gardening when Harry spotted Andromeda approaching from up the street.

He got up, clapping the dirt off his hands and knees, noting that she was accompanied by another woman, a stern looking lady with a monocle in one eye and something in her step that made Harry's hand itch slightly as he dropped it to grip softly on the wand tucked in his belt in a cross draw holster.

The two eyed him, amused as they got closer.

"No need of that, Mr. Potter," Andromeda said, "this is Amelia Bones. She's the head of the DMLE, and would like to speak with you about that night."

Harry let his hand slip off the wand, but didn't really change his stance. Anyone high up in the ministry at the moment was rather low down on his list of people he wanted to talk with, or felt he could trust.

"Don't know that I should say anything more," He admitted after a moment, "The Minister seems to want it kept quiet."

"Harry, Amelia can be trusted." Andromeda promised.

The stern lady seemed to want to say something more, but she visibly stilled herself and just seemed to be sizing Harry up.

"I don't know," Harry shook his head.

"Then let us speak about your second year, Mr. Potter."

Harry shot her a look, "What about it?"

"There were rumors, I discounted them at the time because of a distinct lack of physical evidence," Amelia said simply, "but lately I've heard that they might just be true."

Harry scoffed at that, "Which rumors? Most of them are shite."

Amelia smiled thinly, "Indeed. What about the Basilisk, then? Is that… shite?"

Harry shrugged, "No there was a basilisk alright."

"And you killed it?" Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"Had help," Harry said, "but yeah."

Amelia cast a curious look, first at him and then over to Andromeda who just shrugged herself.

"I told you, Amelia," She said.

"You did," Amelia admitted, "I just rather hoped you were wrong."

She was quiet for a moment, then looked sharply at Harry again, "What about last year?"

Harry turned even more guarded in the blink of an eye, not quite going for his wand but his fingers clenched tightly as he fought the urge. "What about it?"

"You encountered Sirius Black."

"So?"

"Officially, Sirius is a fugitive from the DMLE," Amelia said calmly noting the shakes that the boy was dealing with. Not fear, but anger. "Unofficially he's been offered sanctuary in the colonies. Andromeda tells me that he's innocent, but she's not strictly an unbiased source…"

"Of course Sirius is innocent!" Harry blasted out, shaking as he growled, "He should be here, not in the States. He should be here. But he can't be, and that's the ministry's fault."

Amelia nodded slowly, "I see. So that is why you don't want to speak with me then?"

Harry froze, but then nodded jerkily.

"Harry, I believe you," She said softly, "but to help him, to help anyone, I need more information. I'm being stonewalled in the Ministry, my Aurors have been ordered not to report to me on this issue. I need help. I need you."

Harry hesitated again, but finally broke.

"Fine, but we should talk somewhere else."

"I know just the place," Andromeda said, smiling.


	114. Chapter 114

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander was tired.

Ok, his routine was kind of heavy these days, but that really wasn't the problem. And he had a lot of new projects eating at his time, and mind, but that wasn't the problem either.

No, it was all the time he was spending trying to avoid Wednesday and Willow.

The two W's in his life were trying to drive him insane.

Actually, the more Xander thought about it, that might be EXACTLY what Wednesday was trying to do. He certainly wouldn't put it past her.

The girl's… girls'? Plan was sheer insanity, and not the sort of insanity he expected from the Addams either. Xander couldn't believe that Wednesday was placing herself at such risk, it was the sort of thing she and her family were the very antithesis of.

_Whoo, Antithesis, go me for the big word,_ Xander thought wryly as he made his way through Sunnydale, trying to gather his thoughts.

The sun was descending into the sea, throwing oranges and reds across the town in spectacular fashion. Xander wasn't in the mood to appreciate it just then, however, as his mind refused to give up the imagery he'd been seeing in his imagination ever since reading the ritual details.

He was a teenage boy, after all, it was hard not to fantasize about it.

The ritual was a fairly straightforward power enhancing rite with a bit of a twist, from what he could read. The twist wasn't, depressingly enough, the slave part either. That was actually pretty common from what he knew of ritual magics, they had often been used to coopt free will and dominate others. No, the twist was in the blood element.

_Virgin blood._

Rite magic was powerful enough on its own, combining it with blood magic and sex magic made for one hell of a trinity of powers converging.

The Arithmancy involved was intricate as well, he could tell that at a glance. Three magical schools, four sacrifices, one male, four females. Given the nature of the ritual all those numbers were potent.

The trinity, the singularity, and the four seasons.

It was a powerful rite, without question… but the consequences.

Xander shook his head.

Granted, the rite was not intended as a slave ritual. That was what happened if abused, however from his reading Xander knew that the old rituals had been abused so much that abuse was the norm, not the exception. Whatever the intentions behind it were, it was a slave rite.

_What is Wednesday **thinking**?_

* * *

Wednesday was bored.

That would normally be a good sign for everyone in the vicinity to abandon all hope, and any sense of decorum, and run for the hills… but just then, she was bored and preoccupied.

It was an odd sensation, honestly, being too bored to be bothered with trying to amuse herself wasn't something she'd ever been before. Her thoughts on what Alexander was going to do now had her uninterested in torture or mayhem for the moment, however, and so she just watched as Willow hyperventilated.

"Oh god, he's going to hate me isn't he? We shouldn't have done that, no, no," Willow paced and shook her head, "That was bad. We dropped too much on him, I can't believe you talked me into that and it's all your fault, but I still did it, oh my God what did I do?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, wondering if that color red was healthy on the young witch. It was hard to tell, on most people she suspected that it would be a sign of a stroke, but the particularly fair complexion Willow enjoyed, combined with the red hair, was such that she suspected the girl would redden remarkably easily.

Wednesday herself didn't, of course. Partly that was due to emotional control, but partly her genetics were less prone to… blood flow.

"Calm yourself," She said finally, growing tired of the show. "He is not angry with you, at most he's only mildly disturbed… and likely aroused, and confused. That's Alexander's normal state of mind, so it's hardly worth worrying about."

Willow turned to stare at her, "Aroused? Really?"

She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at the redhead. While Wednesday did admire the girl's intelligence, that lack of confidence simply _had_ to go.

* * *

Sunnydale wasn't the safest of environments at night, but Xander had been briefed on the more common threats so he wasn't too worried as he made his way back to the junkyard just after the sun had set.

Not worried and not ready, however, were two different things.

So when a pair of… well, things that simply stank of dark magic blocked his path about half a block from the junkyard, Xander's hand was already on his combat wand.

"You don't want to do this," He said, really not in the mood.

His issues with Wednesday and her plans were still taking up all his focus, and tangling with a pair of overeager blood suckers wasn't high on his list of things to do.

"Oh, I think we want to do this," The first said, grinning, "Don't you think we want to do this, Jack?"

The second nodded eagerly, "We definitely want to do this."

Xander sighed, drawing his wand from his belt but keeping it slightly masked and at his side. He was surprised that the pair were being this brazen, frankly, since his brief had said that the Hellmouth was waning and attacks were rare for the moment.

_Great. Now I'm going to have to report this to the local Constables._ Xander sighed, it was such a pain in the ass.

The leader made a motion, and 'Jack' lunged forward in response. Xander's wand flicked in response, his arm barely moving as he quietly whispered the incantation.

Lumos.

The pair fell back, screaming, startling Xander though he'd been expecting it. The basic light charm wasn't a full on replacement for sunlight, but it was close enough to drive a vampire back with no trouble and the pair broke and ran in instant later. Xander watched them go, annoyed at the pests that had distracted him from his train of thought, then shrugged and went on with making his way back to the Junkyard.

_Should have taken my bike, would have been less of a hassle._

* * *

Sirius Black looked up from where he was working on his own motorcycle as Xander trudged in, noting that the young man seemed… well preoccupied didn't quite cover it, but was the closest thing he could quite call it.

"You alright?" He asked as Xander tossed off his jacket and slumped in a rolling chair near his own bike.

"Yeah, just annoyed. A couple vampires just tried to chew on me," Xander admitted.

Sirius blinked, "Really? I haven't seen any around."

"Just my luck I guess. Lumos sent them packing," Xander grumbled.

Sirius nodded at that. He'd have used something hotter, personally, but lumos was a good move for a kid. Vampires were an uncommon pest, but not really dangerous to Wizards as a rule, and they mostly left Muggles alone too with the various treaties and laws put into effect to keep them from being noticed by the population at large.

"Better tell the Aurors," Sirius said, "If there's a pair violating the masquerade, that's a problem."

"Yeah, I call them up," Xander said, "We were briefed on what to do cause of Sunnydale being a Hellmouth."

Sirius nodded, remembering the brief himself.

The local dark magic nexus was a nasty one, he had to admit. If it were in England, he had no doubt that the Ministry would have it under quarantine and probably guarded by Dementors. That was assuming, of course, that the Black family or one of the other Dark aligned families hadn't warded it off for their own uses centuries earlier.

_Now THERE is a disturbing thought. Isn't that just something my ancestors would have done?_ Sirius shivered a little, wondering if that might not explain some of the old rites and such of the Dark families, and where their bouts with power had originated.

Something for another time, he supposed, if and when he managed to clear his name and get out of Exile. It would be nice to go home sometime, he thought, though honestly it didn't matter much as long as Harry was alright.

_Maybe he can visit sometime,_ Sirius grinned to himself. _There's a lot to be said for California._

_Speaking of which,_ Sirius nodded to Xander, "The girls have been waiting for you, by the way."

Xander grimaced, surprising him.

"That's what I was worried about. I'm going to call the constables," He grumbled, pushing himself up and trudging off.

Sirius watched him go, perplexed.

_Now what the bloody hell was that about?_

* * *

"What is this place?" Harry wondered, looking around as they entered.

"The London seat of House Black," Andromeda said, grimacing slightly at the dust. "Welcome to Twelve Grimmauld Place."

"It's… lovely," Amelia said, sarcasm dripping from her tone in a veritable flood.

"Isn't it just?" Andromeda laughed, "However it's also exceedingly well warded, and as secure as possible for our conversation.

"It will do," Amelia sighed.

Honestly, she would have preferred her office, but bringing the Boy who Lived into the Ministry at the moment seemed contraindicated. There were too many factions and too many plots at play, and Amelia was well aware that she could only see a small fraction of them.

"Where did you want to start?" Harry asked after a moment of looking around.

"Let's begin with the events after the third task, shall we?" Amelia suggested.

"Voldemort's return," Harry said, noting the flight grimace on both women's faces as they heard that name. "He can't set up the Taboo right now, can he?"

"No, Mr. Potter, he cannot," Amelia admitted, "however old habits die hard, especially survival ones. I would prefer it if you avoided his name, however correct you are."

"Fine," Harry sighed.

"Now, tell me about his return," Amelia said, focusing intently.

Harry described the ritual, as best he could remember, as well as the fight that had ensued. He mentioned Moody's appearance, but Bones instantly waved that off.

"I've known Alastor for many a year, young man. He would not be involved in that."

Harry nodded, "The Headmaster said it was someone under Polyjuice. The real Moody was discovered in Hogwarts, trussed up in a trunk I guess."

Amelia almost lost her monocle at that statement, "He what? I am very much going to have a word with both Alastor and the Headmaster about this."

As controlled as she was, Amelia didn't show emotions, but even to the completely oblivious Harry she was clearly irritated. To Andromeda, who was both more observant and sensitive to people's emotions and knew Amelia personally, the head of the DMLE was _infuriated_.

Andromeda decided that she most certainly would not want to be in either the Headmaster's or Alastors shoes at the moment. Though, if Alastor was still recuperating that might buy him some forgiveness.

Amelia sighed, just keeping from ranting in front of the witness, and started to pace.

"I wish my Ministry budget covered a Pensieve, this would be far easier."

"Pardon," Harry blinked, "What's a Pensieve?"

"An artifact that allows you to share and view memories," Andromeda said, thinking about it herself, "They're _quite_ expensive, however, and very rare for that reason. They require extensive work by a Rune Master to construct."

"Oh." Harry frowned, one of those sounded brilliant. He could just share his memory of Sirius and maybe that would be enough to have his Godfather declared innocent.

"I believe the Unspeakables have one," Amelia sighed, "however they won't admit the sky is blue if you corner them outside on a sunny day, so there's no chance of even getting them to admit they have one, let alone be permitted to use it."

"Old families sometimes have one," Andromeda said, shrugging, "however I don't know if the Black family ever owned one. Doubtful, my ancestors were not the sharing type… not memories or anything else."

"What about the Potters?" Harry asked.

"No," Amelia shook her head, "even less likely. The Potter family has been Aurors as far back as anyone remembers. If your family had a Pensieve, it would be known."

Andromeda tapped her chin slightly, considering it, "You know I believe that they did, and you're right, it was. I'm not sure, however. Do you have a list of properties and assets, Harry?"

"Gringotts gave me one," Harry said, "Is that what you mean?"

"Yes, that would be the one. We can check it later," Andromeda offered.

Harry nodded his agreement and thanks.

"All well and good, but let's remain on topic for the moment," Amelia steered them back, focusing on Harry, "Tell me about your second year."

* * *

He felt like a dead man walking.

A convicted man, taking that last long walk down the hall to the execution chamber.

Which was ironic, seeing as how he was pretty sure Wednesday HAD an execution chamber and he'd much rather be walking toward THAT at the moment. Xander sighed, told himself to buck up, and finished walking down the length of hall to where he had rooms under the yard.

As expected, Wednesday was waiting for him there, as patiently as she ever did… which was to say, not very. If Xander were a decent judge, he'd guess that she was just about ready to initiate a nice little game of 'is there a god?'. The almost imperceptible tick under her right eye gave away the emotion that the Addams scion habitually suppressed.

Of course, that tick MAY have been caused by Willow's near hyperventilating and high speed pacing as she babbled.

"Oh my God, he's going to hate us now, I knew I shouldn't have agreed to what you said but I didn't know what else to do and…"

"Willow!" Xander had to yell to be heard over her babbling. "Calm down. I think you're about to drive Wednesday to Willow-cide."

Willow threw herself at him, forcing him to practically catch her in midair as Wednesday closed her eyes and let out a deep breath of tension that visibly, to Xander at least, relaxed her body. She looked over to where he was holding Willow and glared at the back of the redhead's head.

"There was a girl at Summer camp once that was FAR less aggravating than that," She growled, "She only breaths today because she and her family MOVED before I could lay my hands on them."

"You went to Summer camp?" Xander blinked, his expression completely disbelieving.

"Do not ask," Wednesday grumbled, "I don't like to talk about it."

"Fair enough."

Xander wasn't stupid enough to challenge her when her tone was that frosty, particularly not just after she'd been pushed to near homicide by Willow-babble.

He might save it for later use, however.

Hey, Xander never claimed to be SMART.

"Slow down, Wills," Xander said, looking down at her, "I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?" Willow asked, looking up.

"No, I'm not," He reassured her. "I just don't understand why you both want this."

"I… I…" Willow looked a little confused.

"My reasons hardly matter, Alexander," Wednesday cut in, "only my desire does."

"No," Xander looked evenly at her, "Your reasons are the ONLY thing I care about. As things stand now, I refuse."

Wednesday's lips twitched upward, a dark glint glittering in her eyes as she met his gaze. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

Willow slipped back from Xander, nervously looking between the pair but not sure what she could add to it.

"Why do my reasons matter?" Wednesday challenged him, "The outcome is the same in any event, and what I seek doesn't affect your options."

"Damn it, Wends," Xander growled, "Of COURSE what you want matter! What everyone involved wants MATTERS!

She smiled thinly, "And that is exactly why I trust you and am willing, no am eager, to proceed with the ritual."

"Huh?" Xander blinked, confused.

"She's saying that one of the reasons is… it's you," Willow said, "Wednesday… Me… We, wouldn't do this for anyone else. Not anyone."

"But I don't want you to do it for me either," Xander whined, not that he would admit it.

"Have you looked at the benefits of the rite?" Wednesday asked. "The sacrifice involved is significant, both in blood and trust, but so are the benefits."

Honestly, Xander knew that he'd barely skimmed over that part of the ritual. The requirements and potential disasters had focused his mind quite neatly, in fact, so he shook his head.

"Take your time," Wednesday said, "We have until All Hallows for you to decide."

Xander sighed, "I'm not going to win this one easily, am I?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "Easily? You speak as though you're going to win it at all."

Xander fixed her with a glare that she blithely ignored as she got to her feet, "Well now that you've managed to calm down the hyperactive pixy… foul things those are… I believe I will retire for the night. We can continue our research tomorrow."

Xander nodded, "Fine. Have pleasant dreams, Wednesday."

She shot him a dark look, "I'm already quite aware that you're aggravated with me, Alexander. No need to rub it in."

"Oh, I think we can safely say I'll be pointing that out for a while yet," He told her as he held the door open for her. "Just be glad I'm too scared of clowns to properly redecorate your rooms."

Willow stifled a giggle as Wednesday paled slightly, redoubling her glare only for Xander to ignore it just as easily as she'd managed his.

After she'd stepped out, Willow took a deep breath and suddenly turned almost as red as her hair as she realized she was alone with Xander after the conversation they'd had and the ritual they'd spoke of.

"I… I have to go home now to," She blurted, rushing for the door.

"Willow!" Xander called out, bringing her up short.

"Yes?" She cringed, not looking back.

"Do you have your wands?"

She nodded hesitantly, risking a look back now to see him looking concerned at her. "Yes."

"I saw a couple vampires in the streets earlier," He said, "Remember your lumos."

"Right," Willow nodded firmly. "Lumos."

Xander sighed as she retreated from the room, wishing he'd said more, but honestly what could he have said? Wednesday was certifiably insane, and now she'd dragged Willow into the depths with her.

* * *

Wednesday lightly closed the door to her room, then withdrew her wand and carefully threw up a few privacy wards before setting it down on the nightstand by the bed. She then clenched her fists so hard her arms started to shake, a low groan filtering out through her throat, as she vented her frustrations.

When she was done, she relaxed, then took a seat on the edge of the bed.

_Well_, She thought, _that did NOT go as intended._

For all that she knew and trusted Alexander, he'd managed to surprise her once again. He was a boy, and a teenage one at that. He shouldn't have even blinked at what she was asking… no, what she was OFFERING.

She rather despised having her assumptions tossed out the window like so much trash, even when it sort of proved them more correct than she'd expected.

Minor tantrum passed, Wednesday threw herself back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a time.

"Alexander," She said aloud, "You almost impress me."

* * *

Amelia Bones didn't know what to make of the stories she'd heard the day before.

Dawn was rising in the East, and she'd spent more of the night awake and thinking about the Potter situation than she wanted to admit to. The things that poor boy had been involved in already in his young life were, frankly absurd.

The biggest issue, however, was the return of the Dark Lord.

With Potter's confirmation, she knew she had to prepare.

The Wards of the Ossuary would have to be updated, she knew immediately. They were fine for the average, Merlin even the above average criminal of the Wizarding World, but they would not stand up to the Dark Lord.

As long as the Ministry was pretending he wasn't back, Amelia thought that she might have the advantage.

_He'll lay low, gather his power,_ She thought grimly. _That's how he did it last time. While he's doing that, I can start pulling in some of the reserves for refresher courses. I'll make it look like normal certification requirements. It'll just take a little juggling of the paperwork, but I know just the clerks to handle that._

She couldn't actively recruit, of course, not with Fudge apparently digging his head in the sand, but that would only force the Dark Lord's hand anyway. New recruits would take at least six months to bring up to speed, and that was only if she were willing to drop standards to what they were at the end of the last War.

Amelia didn't foresee the Dark Lord giving her even that much time if he caught wind of the Ministry fortifying for a fight.

Instead she would quietly advise to all trusted Aurors that they beef up their home wards, maybe even slip a few undercover operations to help pay for it. Maybe they'd get a little lucky and trap some of the Death Eaters early on, turn the tables on once the ball dropped.

"Auntie?"

Amelia almost jumped, startled by the voice behind her, but managed not to as she turned to greet her niece as Susan approached, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

"Good morning, Susan."

"Morning," Susan replied, yawning. "You're up early."

"Have a lot of thoughts on my mind," Amelia admitted.

Susan took a seat and stared numbly at her for a long moment, "You went to see Harry yesterday, right?"

Amelia had to suppress a smile.

"I did."

"So, the rumors are right then," Susan sighed.

Amelia shrugged, "Some of them usually are."

"The Dark Lord is back." Susan said blithely, shocking her aunt.

"How did you…?"

Susan smiled weakly, "It's already started to circulate through the Slytherin families, Auntie."

Amelia sighed.

Of COURSE it was.

She nodded, "Yes, it seems that he's back."

"Shite." Susan Amelia Bones said simply.

"SUSAN," Amelia couldn't help but snap, "Language!"

The two stared silently at one another for a long moment before both burst out laughing.


	115. Chapter 115

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Summer vacation proceeded apace, with Xander doing his best to ignore what felt like a looming sword hanging over his head. He buried himself in his projects, his training, and his time with his friends. Evenings were often spent with Jessie and the gang, role playing or general gaming at the local comic store, while his mornings were spent sweating under the direction of Chayton and his uncle.

He was working harder than he'd ever done in his life, but Xander couldn't help but love pretty much every second of it. There was a sense of accomplishment that permeated all of it, and if he were honest with himself, Xander found himself becoming addicted to it. The feeling that he'd done something was unlike anything else he could describe.

He just had to keep chasing that sensation.

* * *

Hermione looked up from her reading, the sound of a local apparition was distinctive and she couldn't help but reach down for her wand. Time spent with Harry had left her just a tad paranoid, she supposed, but there it was.

The polite knock at the front door caused her to relax as she got up and made her way there, but not entirely. She checked at the window before she settled completely, then smiled and opened the door.

"Professor, welcome again," Hermione said as she greeted McGonagall.

"Miss Granger, it is a pleasure to see you again. Might I come in?"

"Of course, please," Hermione stepped aside as the Professor stepped inside. "I assume this is about the first years visit?"

"It is," Professor McGonagall said with a very slight smile. "I wanted to be sure that you were free on the weekend. Saturday, mid-morning? We'll be busy most of the day after that."

"Of course, Professor. May I ask who will be part of the group?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Mostly seventh year prefects," Minerva told her, "from all the houses… well, aside from Slytherin."

"What? Why not?"

"Slytherin prefects never volunteer," Minerva shrugged, her lips pursed in slight annoyance. "It's become almost a tradition, I'm afraid."

Hermione scowled, "That's not right. The school should be represented… ohh, that just makes me so…"

She paused, eyes narrowing, "Please, Professor, does it have to be Prefects?"

"Well, no, but why?"

"What if I could find a Slytherin to represent the house?" Hermione asked, eyes shining slightly.

Minerva had a bad feeling about that, as there really was only one Slytherin she could imagine Miss Granger reaching out too. However, he was in the Colonies at the moment, so she supposed it wouldn't hurt to allow the girl to try. It seemed wrong to deny her, after all, since the lack of a Slytherin representative hurt even Minerva's sense of fairness.

"Very well, Miss Granger," She acceded, "If you can convince a Slytherin to join us, feel free."

"Oh thank you, Professor." Hermione was all smiles at that, an infectious state McGonagall found.

She almost didn't regret giving her permission.

Almost.

* * *

Xander's spell phone chimed as he was completing work on a DIY Broomstick kit he'd picked up in Three Angels. The charms were simple enough, and the rune work had already been done by the company, so he'd finished the job in only a couple hours.

He had picked up a couple other kits, figuring he could experiment with one and give the other to Harry as a belated birthday gift.

"Yo," He said as he flipped open the spell phone.

"Xander, it's Hermione…"

* * *

Friday.

"You're going back to England early?" Willow looked hurt, "but why?"

"Hermione asked for a favor," Xander shrugged with a half-smile. "Besides, I wanted to test out some things."

He was packing up his clothes and experiments, shrinking the chest as they talked.

Willow followed him as he carted everything up to the ground floor and made his way over to the Indian, starting to load the bike up.

Her eyes widened, "You're not taking THAT with you are you?"

"Of course I am," Xander grinned, "You think I'd leave it here?"

"Xander Lavelle Harris, that is not safe!"

"Oh relax, Wills," Xander said as he secured the truck on the rear fender, then slid his shrunken door into the saddlebags. "It'll be fine."

"Ohh… you…" She growled.

Xander hugged her, "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

"I always worry," She admitted.

"Look, I'm just going early to show some kids around Diagon as a favor to Hermione." He said, "it's not like I'm going hunting dragons with Harry or anything."

"Don't even joke about that, it sounds too much like something you'd do," Willow grumbled, giving in. "Have you told Wednesday yet?"

He nodded, "I called her on the spell phone right after I hung up with Hermione. She's spending time with her family anyway, I'll see her in Scotland."

"I wish I were going."

Xander nodded, "I wish you were too. You'd love Hogwarts, Wills."

Willow nodded into his chest, hugging him tighter. She knew he was right about that and, not for the first time, cursed her Father for being such a bigot when it came to magic.

"You've told everyone else too," She said after a moment and they separated.

"Yeah, mum and dad are good. I'm fifteen now," Xander said, "Almost sixteen. That's practically an adult on the Magic side of things. I've got money, transport… hell, Wills, you, me, and Jess always planned our road trip… I guess I'm just getting one up one you, right?"

"Right," She smiled.

Xander closed the snaps on his saddlebags and checked the straps holding the trunk on the rear fender, then drew his curse wand and slid it into the sheath on the right hand handlebar. It wasn't a Tommy Gun, and didn't look half as good, but it was somehow right to put it there anyway.

Xander straddled the bike, checking the mechanism and finally the portkey set between the bars among the few gauges. He tapped it with his Ollivander wand, registering it for London.

"You'll call when you get there?"

"Let me get a hotel room first, ok Wills?" Xander asked, grinning.

"Right after that then," She said firmly.

"You've got it."

Willow sighed, but stepped back. "Have a good year, Xander."

"You too," He told her as he kicked the engine of the bike into operation.

The roar filled the air as Xander tapped his foot down and put some throttle to the bike, causing it to rumble out of the shop and into the junkyard. Willow was still waving at him as he accelerated down through the piles of old cars and junk, picking up speed until he pulled back and roared into the air on the old WW2 motorcycle.

He put it into a steep climb and gunned it, hanging on tight as the bike headed up and to the East as fast as it could manage. The Junkyard, then Sunnydale, and soon the coastline shrunk behind him and Xander had to level out to hit himself with warming and bubblehead charms.

He remembered Sirius advice on using the portkey and resumed climbing after that, getting up to high that the sky above him was a deep blue unlike anything he'd ever seen. The horizon was more white than blue, and there was almost a curve to it before Xander decided he was high enough.

The portkey activated on command, sweeping him and his bike off through a tornado of motion as Xander hung on for dear life.

* * *

Saturday.

Hermione brushed some dirt off her robes as she looked over the street outside the leaky Cauldron with some disdain.

"Someone really should clean his place," She complained.

Minerva sighed in agreement, but didn't say anything. The parents were gathering just beyond the wardlines with the fresh first years and now wasn't the time for that conversation.

"It's time, everyone," She said, "Let us greet our new students, shall we?"

Everyone agreed and started moving forward, leaving Minerva to catch Hermione on the shoulder briefly. "I'm sorry your Slytherin friend couldn't come."

"Oh, he'll be here, Professor," Hermione said confidently. "He said so."

Keeping a polite smile on her face to mask her dismay, Minerva nodded and followed the students out to where they greeted the group of parents and future students beyond. She had hoped that Mr. Harris would have chosen to spend his time with his family or something rather than join them. She still felt somewhat queasy about the boy and the yule ball or, rather, what preceded it.

For the moment, however, she pushed her best face forward and greeted the gathered parents.

"Welcome everyone," Minerva said, "If you'll all stick close, we'll guide you through the wards and into Diagon Alley."

The muggle parents nodded, a little nervously for the most part, but no one seemed too afraid so it was all going to plan for the moment. Minerva and the Hogwarts Prefects who'd volunteered for the day led them in and through the Leaky Cauldron, out to the back wall that led to Diagon. Minerva produced her wand with a flourish and tapped out a pattern on the bricks, smiling as the nervous muttering vanished as the bricks ground against one another and the wall opened up onto the Alley beyond.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," She said as they were all bustled through. "Now, stay close and I'll give you a quick tour on our way to Gringotts where…"

A loud raport, almost like apparition, followed by a sound Minerva had not heard in… Sixteen years… caused her to break off and look up automatically.

An olive green flying motorcycle appeared in the air, farther down the alley, flying in their direction. It slowly descended as people scattered clear of its way, and landed with a rough bang as it sunk deep on its shocks, and rolled to a stop just in front of them.

Minerva had brought her wand up, half expecting to be faced with Sirius Black in that moment, but almost wished she had been when she recognized the grinning face of young Mr. Harris looking in their direction.

"Sorry I'm late," He said, smiling, "Jet lag… well, port key lag, but same thing really. Hey there, Her My Own Ninny, how was your summer?"

The one consolation Minerva had was that, at that moment when she heard Miss Granger's groan, at least she knew that she wasn't the ONLY one to regret the invitation to Mr. Harris.

* * *

Hermione was torn between hexing her so called friend, despite the threat of underage magic, and burying herself into the nearest hole she could possibly find. Since neither of those seemed like good ideas, she firmly shoved the name aside and focused on what she was seeing in front of her.

"Alexander Levalle Harris, just what do you think you're doing flying that… that…" She searched for the right word to describe it.

"Illegal monstrosity," Minerva McGonagall said dryly.

"Yes, thank you," Hermione nodded, "that _illegal monstrosity_!?"

"Excuse me," Xander chuckled as he got off and unsnapped the saddle bags, pulling his door out. "There's nothing illegal about this monstrosity."

"Mr. Harris, it is _quite_ illegal to charm muggle artifacts…" Minerva lectured instantly.

"No charms on the bike, it's enchanted," Xander corrected her, "along with a few runic arrays."

Minerva hesitated, then grimaced, "Yes well, be that as it may…"

Xander walked around in front of the bike, planting the base of the door on the cobblestone as he glanced at the gaping crowd behind the Professor, "Hey everyone, be right with you."

He hooked his foot into the base, then pulled the door up. It smoothly expanded as designed until he had a full size door standing in the middle of the alley. Xander casually flicked his wand at the bike, scarifying the tires, then opened the door to reveal a room beyond. While everyone was still gaping he kicked the bike off the stand and rolled it casually inside.

When he reappeared, Xander was pulling a dark green cloak over his shoulders and sealing it down the front as he casually kicked the door shut behind him. He straightened his cloak, glancing over at Hermione as she glared at him.

"How do I look?"

Her barely audible growl wasn't exactly the answer he was going for, but Xander figured it was the best he was going to get. He collapsed the door, then casually picked it up like a briefcase and turned back to the group.

"Have we done introductions yet, Professor?" Xander asked with a totally unapologetic grin.

Minerva grimaced, but finally gave up.

"Everyone, this is Mr. Harris, a representative of the school's fourth house, Slytherin." She said, gesturing in his direction.

Xander waved at the group, grinning at the kids. "How do you guys like magic so far?"

One of them, a boy, just shook his head, clearly in awe. "That was bloody brilliant!"

"Simon!" His mother, or so Xander assumed, snapped out of her daze, "Language!"

That shook everyone out of the shock as many laughed at poor Simon, who was blushing now and trying to hide his face.

"It rather is, isn't it?" Xander asked, laughing. "I've never regretted choosing magical education, that's for sure."

"You were born with, erm… what do you folk call it?" One man blinked, thinking furiously, "Muddles?"

"Muggles," Xander offered, "and sort of. I was born to what you lot over this side of the pond call Squibs. I prefer the term Latents myself. I lived in a non-magical home until I was eleven, though, same as you kids."

"You seem to have adapted," The same man offered.

"I like to think so, um?" Xander looked at him questioningly.

"Apologies," The man said, "Bernard Cowell."

"Nice to meet you," Xander said, nodding as he glanced around.

The Alley had given up interest in his arrival by this point, the unusual only caught the attention of Magicals for a few scant seconds as a matter of course, then it was old hat. So now things were getting back to normal and people were getting back about their business.

"So, professor, what's the first stop?" He asked.

Minerva sighed, "We're going to tour the Alley on our way to Gringotts."

"Ah," Xander nodded. "Well, shall we then?"

"Pardon," A younger man, Xander figured for early thirties maybe, "but how did you do that?"

"Do what?" Xander asked, "I did a few things…"

"Umm… any of it?"

"We don't have time to describe every law Mr. Harris has broken in the last five minutes," Minerva grumbled.

"What sort of laws?" Cowell asked.

"Underage magic, illegal charms, illegal modification of muggle artifacts…"

"Ahem," Xander cleared his throat, holding up one finger, "point of order… I've not broken any laws."

"Mister Harris, you are underage…"

"I'm American," Xander said, "while I am bound by the Statute of Secrecy, British Underage laws don't apply."

Minerva glowered, "You still illegally modified that muggle contraption…"

"Already covered that, it's enchanted, not charmed." Xander wagged his finger.

"There's a difference?" Cowell asked, clearly confused.

"Absolutely," Xander said, "in non-magical terms it's the difference between… hum… well, I don't know if there's anything I can really compare it to. However it's illegal to charm non-magical items, just in case they fall into the hands of non-magicals. Enchantments and runes aren't covered in those laws, however, because not many people are going to be careless with anything that expensive."

"Be that as it may, Mr. Harris, you most assuredly must have broken some law flying that… thing in here."

"Maybe a couple minor ones," Xander shrugged, "but I can't think of what they might be. At any rate, we can continue the discussion as we walk. Daylight is burning, as they say."

* * *

The group made their way through the Alley, heading toward the white marble face of Gringotts that lay down at the end of the road. McGonagall watched and calmly answered direct questions while the prefects pointed out the sights and various attractions of Diagon, while occasionally shooting glowers at Xander who was fielding near constant questions from the soon to be first years they were escorting.

"What's Hogwarts like?"

Xander smiled at the little girl who'd spoken up, "It's a huge castle with magic everywhere, ghosts, flying sports, all sorts of magical animals in the area… it's pretty great."

"Ghosts?" She asked, looking stricken.

"Ah don't worry… um, what's your name?" Xander paused, looking down at her.

"M.. Maria."

"Don't worry, Maria," He said again, "Ghosts are pretty harmless, even if a little spooky. Sometimes they'll even help you with your homework."

She giggled at that, but looked a little unsure all the same.

"Flying sports?" Cowell spoke up again, "Is that safe?"

"Perfectly safe, I assure you Mr. Cowell," Minerva said sternly.

Xander laughed at her, drawing her ire and a sharp look from the parents. He raised his hands, "Sorry Professor, just couldn't help but think of Harry."

"Yes, well Mr. Potter is hardly the normal example." Minerva sighed exasperatedly.

"That's true enough," Xander looked back to Cowell, "Safe is a relative term, Sir. I'll be honest, as non magicals, you probably wouldn't last more than a few days in Hogwarts without being seriously injured."

Several people hissed, including Professor McGonagall as she glowered at him darkly.

"However, your kids are Magical." He said firmly, "So it's not a problem for them. The school sport, Quidditch, is played on brooms twenty feet off the ground and better than fifty miles per hour. Usually, unless Harry is playing, no one gets hurt. If they do, the school nurse has them back on their feet in a few minutes. Kids get hurt more playing football. Magic is just awesome that way."

He glanced at the boys, half of whom had their hands up, "No, first years don't get to play on the house teams."

All but one of the hands dropped, disappointed noises coming from them. Xander smirked and nodded to the remaining hand. "Name first, then ask."

"Brian, Sir. Brian Smythe." The boy said, "and I was just wondering who this Harry was?"

"Ah, Harry Potter," Xander responded, wrapping an arm around Hermione and pulling her over, "You should ask Her My Own… Ow!"

Hermione, glaring at him, primly dusted her hands off from where she had jabbed him in the ribs.

"I'm Hermione," She said, introducing herself to Brian, "and Harry is my best friend."

"Vicious girls," Xander grumbled, rubbing his ribs as the kids laughed at him. "Harry is also the school's star player. He only has two speeds, though. Stop and damn the torpedoes."

That seemed to amuse the parents more, and even Hermione and McGonagall smiled at it… albeit with more than a hint of exasperation between them.

"In that, Mr. Harris is entirely correct," Minerva spoke up, "Mr. Potter has no sense of restraint while playing, and it has led to him spending quite a lot of time in the nurses wing."

"Keeping in mind, Harry's been hurt in ways that would probably have crippled him in any normal school," Xander said, "but never spends more than overnight in the infirmary. Magical medicine is very good, so while danger is relative, for the kids the school really isn't any worse than most active schools anywhere else."

He was lightly skipping over the various… incidents… that had occurred since he'd been going there, but honestly to Xander's mind those were pretty minor anyway. He didn't think McGonagall would appreciate him bringing all that up, either.

They came to a stop outside Gringotts, causing Minerva to check their numbers again and nod to the parents.

"You can change your money over in the bank," She gestured, starting up the marble stairs.

"Hang on," Here Xander cut in again, "Time out for a sec."

He looked over the parents seriously, remembering some of the advice Gomez had offered him.

"The bank is run by Goblins," He said, "Be polite, don't try small talk, and whatever you do… do not try to negotiate with them. Not until you know the rules and have some muscle to back you up."

"Why would we try to negotiate with them?" Cowell asked, frowning.

"Because their exchange rate isn't all that great," Xander admitted, "and if you were to even comment on it, one of the tellers would likely offer to lower it. Don't. They will cheat you and rob you blind."

"Xander! I can't believe you'd say that, I'm sure that the Goblins are more than fair," Hermione pouted at him.

Xander spared her a glance, "Oh they're scrupulously fair, or at least honest, but when Goblins meet someone new that's how they test him. There are only two sorts of strangers that a Goblin will never cheat… children, and the mentally infirm. In fact, to them, if they don't try and cheat you… they're basically saying that you're not fit to handle your own finances. That's a _mortal_ insult to a Goblin."

"Won't they try and cheat us anyway, then?" Cowell asked.

"No," Xander shook his head, "Right now you're all covered under the treaty of 1714. That means that you pay a little more on the exchange, but have protections and rights enforced by the ministry. If you haggle with them, they'll HAPPILY drop the exchange rate, but you'll lose all those other protections. So just… don't, ESPECIALLY if they offer."

"Why especially?" Cowell asked, confused.

"Because that probably means you have some serious money to your name and they're interested in snaking it out from under you." Xander looked them all over, "So for today, please… play it safe, don't haggle. If you're thinking about it, talk to me later and I'll get you some information on the protections of the treaty of 1714."

The parents nodded thoughtfully as Minerva looked them all over.

"In this, at least, Mr. Harris is entirely right. Now, into Gringotts, shall we?"


	116. Chapter 116

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Xander was securing his bag of converted Galleons to his belt, after checking the anti-theft charms, as some of the parents and their children filed out of the bank and looked up and down the alley.

"Looks rather primitive, doesn't it, love?" One of the men, whose name Xander hadn't gotten before, said with some disdain. "Not sure I want to condemn our girl to a place this antiquated."

"Hush, luv," His wife urged him, "They'll hear you."

Xander chuckled, "They've heard it before, but I would be careful making assumptions there, Sir."

The two flushed a little at getting caught, but the man wasn't in the mood to back off from his comments.

"Well I'm right, aren't I? Just look around," He gestured.

"You're right and you're wrong," Xander said, stepping down the white marble steps that were the signature front of the Gringotts bank. "The Magical World is actually more complicated than that. It's pretty hard to say which is more advanced, because the two worlds had a very real split over a thousand years ago. In some ways it is behind the times, but in others it's far more advanced than you can probably imagine."

Several other parents had gathered, hearing someone actually speaking about what had been bothering them.

"How is it more advanced?" Cowell asked, looking around with interest.

"Transportation, for one, remember my bike?" Xander smiled.

That bought them all up short, as they realized that somehow they _had_ in fact forgotten it… or, rather, hadn't thought much about its implications.

"The magical world is far ahead of the normal world in several fields, and even socially in some ways," Xander said, "Though it's far behind in many others. You're not looking at a world out of time, it isn't some capsule of a society trapped a hundred and fifty years in the past, though I understand that it does look like it."

He'd had this conversation with his uncle, and with Robert, and Willow, and several others over the years, so Xander wasn't surprised by the parent's reactions.

"On the surface it looks," Xander shrugged, considering, "Roughly Victorian era, I suppose?"

Cowell nodded, "More or less."

"The Wizarding World broke off from the rest of the world with the development of a key magical technology," Xander produced his Ollivander wand with a flourish, "The magic wand. When the rest of the world was dealing with kings and tyrants, the Magical World established democratic government, banking, contract law… all sorts of things that took centuries more in the rest of the world. All thanks to the wand. The non-magical world had to wait to develop guns for the same thing to happen for them."

"What do guns have to do with it?" The first man asked, frowning.

"Without guns, democracy doesn't exist," Xander said with a shake of his finger. "Or, some other equalizer I suppose. Guns allow the people to rapidly train and equip forces that can equal, or best, the armies of a dictator. Prior to firearms, only the rich could afford to maintain fighting force, and so only the rich were free. In the Wizarding World that split happened hundreds of years earlier, with the wand."

"So wands are a weapon then?" Cowell asked, eyeing the stick with some doubt, but also with trepidation. "You're going to arm our children?"

"No, they're more than a weapon, and in many ways a little less than a gun," Xander said seriously, "A wand in the hands of a child is perfectly safe. Without training, there is effectively no chance of a child causing irreparable harm with a wand. A gun, on the other hand, is far easier to misuse. Of course, once you're trained, a wand is more versatile and, yes, potentially deadly. Very few wands are ever used to harm, thankfully."

"Xander Harris," Hermione appeared behind him, "This is hardly a suitable topic."

"Why not?" Xander shrugged.

"You'll give the parents the wrong idea," She told him primly.

Xander looked over those who were listening, "A wand isn't a weapon. It's a tool, but it's a very versatile tool. It can be a screwdriver, or a hammer, or a machete if that's what you need. Or, in the hands of a trained Auror, it can be a pistol… though a wand really makes for a lousy rifle, I'm afraid. No distance accuracy."

"Auror? Those are the police, right?" Cowell asked.

"That's right," Xander nodded, "Back home the Federal cops are known as the Pride, a joke on the Law Enforcement Officer acronym. Locals are Constables, and I understand that some larger regions in the Americas have Mystic Rangers, but usually those groups are deputized for a specific job and disbanded when it's done. Texas and Mexico is the only territory I know that maintains a full time Ranger battalion. Mostly because every Magical Outlaw in American history eventually seems to make a run for Mexico right through Texas, apparently looking to get down into the South Americas. It's still pretty wild down there, so hiding out is easier."

"And here in Britain?" Cowell seemed genuinely curious.

"The Aurors handle investigations," Minerva stepped in as she had just come out of the bank herself, "foot patrols and the like. Hit Wizards are part timers, sometimes with specialized training, who are called in as needed."

"Seems simplistic," Cowell noted.

"Wizarding Britain has a pretty low population and not a lot of ground to cover," Xander said helpfully. "When you factor in the common use of old wards, police aren't really needed much under normal circumstances. Most of the crimes you get in the non-magical world just don't happen in the Wizarding world."

"I find that rather hard to believe," Cowell scoffed.

Xander just shrugged, "You get a little theft, some black market contraband sales, and of course the occasional murder and the like, but as I've been told its pretty low numbers all considered. You have to understand, domestic crimes and the like are almost unheard of."

The parents looked at one another, clearly disbelieving him, and Xander couldn't help but smile.

"It really comes down to the same reason why there is no gender discrimination in the magical world," He said.

"None?" One of the women blurted, shocked.

"None." Xander said firmly, glancing at McGonagall, "Ma'am, have you ever been discriminated against because you're a woman?"

The look on her face said it all, really. The Professor wasn't indignant, nor angry at the suggestion, rather she was honestly bemused by the question.

"Of course not, why ever would I have been?"

Xander shrugged, looking back at the parents, "In the magical world, upper body strength doesn't really gain you much. Women have just as much magical potential as men, on average, and honestly they can be a lot more vicious when provoked."

He grinned, getting a laugh out of the parents and a huff from Hermione, who was still glaring at him.

"Children don't get abused, for the most part," He said, "Wives don't get beaten."

"You said for the most part," Cowell asked. "That implies exceptions."

Xander sighed as he nodded, "Yes, sadly. The most common I've heard of is squib, or latent, children born into magical families. It's considered shameful, and the abuser knows that no accidental magic is going to bite them on the ass, so that's the one exception."

"So it's not a magical utopia then," Cowell said wryly.

"No, that it's not. Prejudice and violence are much the same, but the targets are a little skewed," Xander admitted, "and, then you have the Dark Lords."

"Now see here, Mr. Harris," McGonagall said, her lips pursed sternly. "We're now straying into dark history."

"Fourteen years ago, for the last official one." Xander responded.

"What are Dark Lords?" One of the parents asked.

"Individuals of such magical potential that they can basically ignore laws," Xander told them, "It's very rare, but they do happen, and when someone like that goes dark things get ugly. Right now the only known wizard in that class is a certified Light Lord, and the Headmaster of our school actually."

"Mr. Harris! Albus Dumbledore would never…"

"Didn't say he would, Ma'am," Xander grinned, "I said he _could_. He is assumed to be that powerful, but he's also just short of being considered a saint. His skill and power are currently unmatched, certainly in Britain, and arguably in the world."

"Don't put a lot of stock in saints myself," Cowell offered dryly, gaining some nods of concern from the rest.

"Dumbledore, well you remember Merlin in the Disney animated movie?" Xander asked, with a grin.

They all nodded, slightly confused.

"Now you know Albus Dumbledore."

"You must be joking, lad." Cowell said, jaw a little slack.

"He's really not," Hermione sighed, adding her own two pence. "The open debate among the muggle-born students is between whether he's going senile in his old age, or maybe saw the movie and just enjoys playing the part."

"Ms. Granger!" McGonagall blurted, just a little aghast.

"Sorry Professor," Hermione said, wincing, "it's true though."

Minerva pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to parse that bit of information. While she actually knew enough about the Muggle world to have seen a few movies, she hadn't seen the one the two were referencing.

_I suppose now that I will have to correct that oversight_, she sighed before setting out to straighten everyone out. "Albus is well known for his eccentricities, yes, and he is a formidable wizard. He is, however, one of the most honorable men I have ever known in my life."

Everyone glanced over at Xander, as if expecting him to contradict her.

He just shrugged, "She's not lying. If anything, the biggest criticism of Dumbledore is that he's too honorable and merciful. Sometimes Justice has to be harsh, and he's forgotten that."

"Doesn't seem like a problem for a school teacher," Cowell offered.

"More than you'd think, but remember, Wizarding England is a small place really, and Dumbledore is top dog. He's headmaster, chief justice… I think is the equivalent? And a diplomat to the Wizarding version of the UN," Xander said. "Busy guy. Might be why he's barmy."

"Mr. Harris!"

Xander shrugged apologetically amid the laughter form the parents, noting that while she was glaring at him there was something around McGonagalls lips that might be a hint of a smile.

"That's enough of that for the moment," McGonagall said, "We're to do your shopping and, of course, pick up wands for the first years. So let's be on our way then, shall we?"

* * *

Shopping in the Alley was always an exercise in combined wonder and frustration, at least as far as Xander could tell, and it seemed like that pattern would follow true. The children were bolting from store to store, barely under any sort of control while he and the prefects McGonagall had invited chased after them, keeping them out of mischief.

Mostly, for his own part, Xander just focused on keeping anyone from running into Knockturn and getting themselves into trouble that might take violence to get them out of. He figured that would definitely be a black mark in the parent's eyes, if anything was.

Thankfully there was more than enough in Diagon to keep everyone interested.

The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects were, of course, showing a few of the parents and most of the kids around Quality Quidditch while Hermione was herding the more intellectually leaning through the bookstore. There was a certain irony in that reversal of the regular Gryffindor and Ravenclaw roles, he was sure, but Xander was so used to Hermione that he barely noticed it.

Once he had all the stragglers well clear of Nocturn Alley Xander made his way in Hermione's direction in time to hear her in a discussion about Hogwarts curriculum.

_Of course._

That, of course, was of no surprise to precisely everyone who knew her.

"So you're saying that there's an entire course on changing one thing into another?" One of the mothers was asking, "Isn't that Alchemy?"

"No," Hermione answered, "Alchemy is different from transfiguration."

"So… Alchemy is real?" The mother pressed.

Xander chuckled, gathering their attention, "Oh yes. Our Headmaster's Mastery is in Alchemy."

"The crazy guy?" A father asked, his tone a cross between amused and skeptical. "Figures."

Hermione huffed up, but Xander just laughed.

"Alchemy was once very respected in the Wizarding world," Xander said, "but these days it's rather like having a PHD in Steam Engines in the non-magical world."

"Useless then?"

Xander shrugged, "Unless you want to run a nuclear power plant, or an aircraft carrier, I suppose you could say that. Transfiguration and Potions have replaced most of the common applications that Alchemy used to serve, but there are high level applications that Alchemists still rule the roost in. No one has ever figured out how to transfigure lead into gold, for example, or brew the Elixir of Life."

"So the Philosopher stone is real, then?" A quiet woman spoke up thoughtfully, "I'd wondered since I saw books on Alchemy in there."

"Alchemy is complete hogwash," A grumbling father said. "You can't turn lead into gold…"

"Scientists did it years ago without magic," Xander said, surprising most of them, including Professor McGonagall. "It just takes a stupid level of power to do in a lab, which costs more than the Gold is worth. Alchemy bypasses that requirement, or rather power is just a cheaper commodity in the magical world."

"Muggles turned lead into Gold?" McGonagall blurted, honestly shocked.

"Oh yes, it takes a nuclear power plant but it can be done," Xander said, having spent some time with Willow studying all the ways that science was duplicating what magic considered commonplace. "In principal, from what I understand, it's not even that complicated…"

Willow had certainly explained it to him enough times for at least some to stick.

"It's just a matter of shifting some electrons and protons around," He said, considering it, "I think that permanently transfiguring lead into gold, or any element into another, should be possible… even easy, but so far it's only been done via Alchemy."

_Unless Harry pulled it off with his whole titanium bullshit_, Xander thought sourly.

McGonagall laughed lightly, "If you manage that, Mr. Harris, you'll be a shoe in for an Order of Merlin in Transfiguration. Even Merlin himself wasn't powerful enough to do that."

Xander shrugged, "I'm already manipulating carbon atoms one at a time, taking it one step farther to directly manipulating the protons and electrons they're made of is an order of magnitude more precise, but it should actually be far less power intensive."

Hermione had frozen in place and was almost quivering in barely suppressed excitement, causing Xander to realize just what he'd said.

"Oh damn it, Hermione, don't even say it!" He warned her, "I have enough research projects on the go!"

"But Xander," Hermione's voice was pleasing, "Pushing the boundaries of magic!"

"Damn it. You're going to tell Wednesday about this, aren't you?" He sighed.

"I am now," She confirmed.

"I rather expect that you'll be biting off more than you can chew," Minerva said tartly, "the best minds of generations have tried and failed to do what you're suggesting."

"No, they tried to brute force it," Xander said with a bit of a frown, "The way we do with most transfigurations. That works when you don't much care about the composition on an atomic level, but when it comes to Gold that's literally ALL we care about. I'm suggesting a more… precise approach. In fact, I bet I could make gold from lead right now… just not very much of it. A few atoms per second, maybe? Hard to say."

He thought about it, considering how hard it was to manipulate carbon atoms for his newest wands.

The issue really wasn't in how hard it was to do, it wasn't hard at all. The issue was in how long it would take to do any sort of significant conversion.

"No, atom by atom would just take forever to make any real amount of Gold," He decided, "I'd need to make some sort of a catalyst or construct to speed up the conversion. Probably what the Philosopher's Stone actually is, really."

Professor McGonagall was looking rather skeptical, not that he blamed her. He was as familiar with Gamp's Laws as anyone in the Wizarding World. Money, Food, and the like were all supposed to be impossible to create with magic. Xander just rather believed that the law only held true because Wizards really never bothered to determine exactly what those items really were.

"If you're right, Xander, this changes everything," Hermione breathed in near shock, her mind obviously racing to imagine all the applications to what he had just said.

"Which is why, if I'm right and I succeed, I'll do the same thing the Flamel's did and bury the process," Xander told her firmly.

"What? Why?" Hermione focused on him, eyes filled with disbelief.

"Hermione, the Wizarding world is still on the Gold Standard," Xander told her, laughing, "I'd rather not be assassinated by the Ministry, Goblins, and every other group there is. One of the first lessons Gomez ever taught me, don't fuck with the money men."

"Alexander Harris," Hermione shrieked, "Language!"

Xander he'd up his hands, laughing, "Sorry. But, really, I'm not joking. You don't mess with money like that. People get really pissy about it."

One of the fathers laughed, "He's not wrong there."

Xander nodded, "Anyway, while the discussion has been fun, we've still got a lot to do. How about picking up some expanded trunks for the kids?"

"You mean like the door thing you stored your bike in?" One of the kids asked excitedly.

"Oh, I like this one," Xander grinned, "Good eye. Close, but not quite. I made that myself, and pushed a lot more power in than you'd get from most of the stuff we'll find today. But a nice trunk can hold all your clothes, books, sports gear, and such while not weighing any more than the trunk would empty. It's a good buy, trust me."

That had everyone's interest, so Xander led them down the alley in search of trunks.


	117. Chapter 117

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

As Xander had predicted, the trunk shop turned out to be something of a hit, as much or more with the parents as with the students unless he much missed his guess. His own expanded trunk, the same model Master Aurors were able to get a price break on with Ministry backing, was well out of the reach of all by the most self-indulgent rich types, but simple single chamber models were not unreasonably priced.

"Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves," He said as he walked up beside Hermione, "feels like a good day."

She spared a moment to pin him with something of a glare, though there wasn't much heat in it even by her standards, to say nothing of Wednesday's.

"Yes, because enjoying themselves was the point of this outing," She said with a hint of frost in her tone before sighing, "However, they did also get a lot of information about the wizarding world, which was the point, so thank you for coming."

"No problem, it was fun."

Hermione just rolled her eyes at that, but had no further comment.

The rest of the tour went smoothly, with no more interruptions from Xander to expound on the oddities of the Wizarding world, much to McGonagall's apparent relief, and they were well on their way to wrapping up the yearly visit when an ethereal white bird descended from the skies over the Alley and headed straight for the professor.

"There's been a Dementor attack on Privet Drive," the Headmaster's voice came from the bird, shocking the Professor and confusing almost everyone else.

"Oh my god!" Hermione blanched, "Harry!"

"I'm going," Xander said, pulling his brief case from where it had rested on his back and dropping it to the ground so he could pull it open into the full sized door.

"Mr. Harris!" McGonagall yelled, "You will do no such thing! Leave this to the adults!"

He didn't even bother responding as he rolled his bike out, kicking the stand down so he could retrieve and shrink the door. As he was dropping the now shrunken door back into its place on the bike and settling into the seat, Hermione jumped on behind him.

"Herms?" Xander half asked, though he wasn't really surprised.

"Harry's in trouble, if you think I'm staying here, you're dumber than you act," She told him rather tartly.

Xander nodded, "Fair point."

"Miss Granger! Mr. Harris!" The Professor tried again, going so far as to draw her wand.

She was covered by a pair pointed back at her before she had even managed to fully remove it from her robes.

"Sorry, Professor," Hermione said, sounding miserably contrite, "I really am, but this isn't something I can bend on."

McGonagall sighed, watching as Xander stomped on the started and set the bike running with a roar that echoed off the walls of the alley.

"Do be careful, the two of you," She said, "I'll ensure that help is being sent."

"We will, Professor," Hermione said, holding on to Xander as he twisted the throttle and the back tires bit into the cobblestones, sending the bike roaring down the alley.

The Professor and gathered potential students, their parents, and remaining prefects all watched as the bike picked up speed and then abruptly angled upward and climbed into the sky. McGonagall turned back, taking note of the look in the eyes of the children… and not a few of the parents, as well as her prefects, and couldn't help but sigh.

_The Marauders only ever **wished** to cause this much commotion in their wake… With Harris influencing them, I rather suspect that this year's batch of Muggle-borns are going to be a handful._

_Damn it._

* * *

Hermione wanted to scream as she held on to Xander during the climb, but just barely managed to hold it in. The ride, unlike her expectations, was nearly nothing at all like that of a broomstick. There was more of a sense of power in the mass of the bike and the rumble of the engine, lending an unnatural feel of solidity as they climbed.

All in all, it wasn't as bad as she expected it to be but at the same time the dichotomy of flying in a clearly non-magical vehicle that wasn't ever intended to do such a thing was honestly freaking her out a little more than she'd prepared for.

They settled out over the city, and Hermione looked down in some surprise and wonder at the buildings moving along beneath them.

"Xander?" She spoke hesitantly.

"Yeah?" He called over his shoulder.

"Can they… uh… see us?" She asked as she nodded to the people so far below, images of violating the statutes of secrecy flashing through her mind.

"Not really," He called, "We're running notice me not fields, combined with compulsion charms to see something they expect. Most of them probably think we're a news chopper, or maybe just a bird way up in the sky."

"Oh," Hermione said, blinking.

That was a relief, of course, but it just brought up a ton of other questions that she now wanted to pester him with. She kept a firm grip on her inquisitorial mind, however, and instead stayed focused on the situation at hand.

"Do you know the way to Privet Drive?" She called over the wind that was rushing past.

Xander shook his head, "Not a clue!"

"Then what are we doing!?" Hermione yelled back, now starting to get worked up. "We have to get to Harry!"

"Calm down," Xander said, tinkering with the gas cap of the bike for some reason. "I just wanted to get clear of the Wards around Diagon. We're going to portkey there! Hold on!"

Hermione gripped him tighter on reflex as a hook seemed to grab her by her belly and suddenly the whole world vanished into a tornado.

* * *

Privet Drive, Surrey, was the epitomy of normal in the modern world. The streets were perfectly lined up, the houses identical, and all the grounds meticulously managed to show the wealth of the middle income residents who called the drive home.

Number 4, Privet Drive, outwardly matched all others in every detail, with carefully tended gardens and lawns, a new car gleaming in the driveway, and every aspect of the home that sat there being as clearly well-tended. Inwardly, for those in the know, was a far different story.

"Dud! Dud! Are you ok?" Harry asked, half dragging his obese cousin into the kitchen, "Keep talking to me, Dud."

His cousin groaned, but nodded slowly, "I'm cold."

"That's Dementors, Dud," Harry said, "Come on, I've got something that will help."

"Dudders!" Petunia's screech should have, by all logic, cracked the windows in Harry's opinion, but for some reason they held against the high pitched sound.

_I wonder if the wards are keeping the glass intact?_ He wondered idly, "He's fine, Aunt Petunia. Help me get him into the chair and I'll get something so he feels better."

"What happened?" She turned on him, "What did you do?"

"Me? _Nothing!_" Harry protested, "It was Dementors."

That brought his aunt up a little short, but her confused face showed recognition, "Don't those things guard that prison of yours?"

"Not mine," Harry said, dropping Dudley into the kitchen chair, "watch him, I'll be right back."

Petunia scowled after him as Harry ran out of the room, but was more concerned with her little Diddums for the moment.

"Are you ok, Duddy?" She asked, cooing as she fretted around him.

Dudley shivered, "It's so cold."

Petunia looked around, surprised at that. While England was hardly a tropical destination, it was still the middle of the summer and there wasn't even a rain chill in the air.

"Hold on, I'll turn up the thermostat," She told him, crossing the room.

"Don't bother," Harry said as he returned, "It's the Dementors effect, he's not actually cold. He just thinks he is. Here, Dud, this will help."

Dudley looked at the slab of chocolate Harry was holding out, wanting anything that might get rid of the numbing cold but at the same time distrusting of anything from _that_ world.

Harry sighed, "Trust me, Dud, no jokes here. This is what a healer would give you for this."

Harry broke off a piece and popped it in his mouth, feeling the warmth flow through him. "See? It's fine."

Dudley, still hesitant, accepted it from Harry's hand and carefully broke off a piece.

"Dudders…" Petunia started to speak, unsure if she wanted to let her son eat something from the Magical World.

Dudley popped the piece in his mouth before she could say anything else and both Harry and Petunia could see the tension and shivers flee his body as he relaxed into the chair and moaned slightly in relief.

"Magical chocolate," Harry said with a shrug, then nodded to Petunia, "You should take a piece or two yourself, in case the house was caught in the effect. Aunt Petunia."

Uncertain, Petunia reached for a piece just as a flash of light from the window startled them all, and a roar of an engine rattled every bone in their bodies.

"What on Earth is _that_?" Petunia screeched eyes wide.

Harry's wand was in his hand again as he rushed the door, "Portkey, stay inside!"

* * *

Xander gunned the engine to full throttle as they dropped out of the portkey vortex, using the spinning wheel of the bike to absorb the remaining kinetic energy and prevent them from being slammed into the earth hard enough to perhaps damage his baby.

"Wand out!" He called as they came down in the middle of the road just a little distance from Privet Drive.

Hermione did as he'd ordered and that let Xander take a moment to survey the area while he guided the bike into the driveway at number 4 and kick down the stand. They both jumped off the bike, Xander drawing his combat wands from his belt holster as he did, and the pair charged up the drive to the house as the door flung open and a wand hand was thrust out.

"Identify yourselves!"

"Harry! It's us!" Hermione yelled back, breaking into a run.

"Hermione?" Harry stuck his head out, eyes wide behind his glasses, surprised to see his best friend rushing toward him.

Xander was taking up the rear guard, moving backwards with wands covering their flanks as they closed on the house and Harry stepped aside to let them in.

"You good, Mate?" Xander asked as Hermione threw herself at Harry, hugging him.

"A little chilled, but we're all good here," Harry confirmed. "How…?"

"We were in the Alley with McGonagall when the word came from the Headmaster," Xander said, not putting his wands away. "No chance we were just going to sit around. What happened?"

"Dementors," Harry answered, "A pair of them. I scared them off with my Patronus, but now the Ministry wants to snap my wand."

Xander glanced at the want in Harry's hand, "Damn it, Harry, why didn't you use the combat wand I gave you? There's no trace on that!"

"It's not good for charms," Harry defended himself, "the only spell I know that is good for Dementors is the Patronus charm!"

"Alright," Xander said, extending his hand, "Give me your wand."

"What?"

"Hand it over," Xander said again, "if they actually demand a wand, you give them the one I gave you. I'm a wand crafter, they're not legally allowed to search me for wands, or take any I have on me, unless they have me for a real crime."

"Oh, right," Harry blinked, but handed his wand over and pulled the carbon wand from his back pocket. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," Xander said, looking up to see Petunia and Dudley staring at them from the kitchen, "Are those two alright?"

"Yeah, I gave them some chocolate…" Harry started to say before a fire burst to life in the living room, startling everyone until Harry held up his hands and yelled, "Stop! Don't worry, it's just Fawkes!"

The Phoenix sang softly, causing everyone to feel a little better, before dropping a letter off with Harry. Harry quickly opened it and read through before sighing.

"The headmaster says to stay here and under no circumstances give up my wand," He said with a hint of a smile before becoming more serious, "It looks like I have a hearing coming up, though."

"For what?" Xander asked, confused.

"Underage magic, for the Patronus charm," Harry replied.

Xander couldn't help it, he grinned.

"Really? Underage magic you say?"

Harry grinned back, "It's almost like someone forgot to fill them in on an important detail."

"Imagine that," Xander laughed, earning a huff from Hermione.

"Boys."


	118. Chapter 118

Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

* * *

Andromeda Tonks hurried down the street of the suburb, ignoring the odd looks she was getting. She hadn't had time to fully dress muggle so, while she knew that nothing she was wearing was too out there, it wasn't exactly normal either. She didn't care for the moment, however, she intended to see for herself that Harry was fine.

She ran up the drive to number 4 and burst in without knocking, "Harry are you…"

Andromeda froze, three wands in her face and for a moment nearly broke into a cold sweat.

Harry sighed, "Sorry, Mrs. Tonks, we're a little on edge here."

The wands dropped, and Andromeda took a moment to look over the youths that had nearly cursed her right back out the door she'd just come through.

One was a girl, quite pretty, with wavy brown hair. She immediately put her wand away and turned her attention back to Harry, almost with a mothering air that brought a hint of a smile to Andy's lips.

_This must be young Miss Granger, I would guess,_ Andromeda supposed. There were not many young ladies associated with Potter, and the only other she could think of was a Weasley, so in the absence of red hair, she would make her assumptions.

The young man, on the other hand, was a little taller than either of his fellows and quite fit. He had dark brown eyes that Andy caught eyeing and evaluating her for a long moment after Potter had proclaimed her identity. Finally his wand was slipped into his belt, alongside two others she could see that rested on his left hip, tied in a bundle.

She'd never seen anyone carry their wands quite like that, but once when travelling with her father on a business deal had seen a Japanese Wizard escorted by men called Samurai who wore swords and dagger in a similar fashion. It was an odd affectation, but somehow suited the young man, who she had to assume, was the American that Cissa had spoken of, Alexander.

"Well, now that I'm not going to be cursed out of the house," Andromeda said a moment later, before sighing, "And I do apologize for bursting in like that, I was not thinking straight. Harry, is everyone alright?"

"We're fine here, Mrs. Tonks," Harry told her, "The Dementors scattered when I cast my Patronus, so Dudley and I were able to make it back to the house. The Ministry sent this, however."

He handed her a latter, so Andy took a moment and quickly read it. Her lips twitched, alternating between amusement and frustration.

"Well," She said at length, "I'm having difficulty deciding whether to be annoyed or amused by this, I must confess. What are your thoughts, Harry?"

He shrugged, "I don't see where we have many options. We're going to have to go public, right?"

She nodded slowly, considering, "Assuming nothing changes, yes. It may, though, if the headmaster is able to figure something out."

"Well, if he does then we can reconsider," Harry said, "but if not, then it's time for Regent Black to step into the public eye."

"Don't forget Sir Harry, Mage Knight of the Realm," Andy reminded him, "Her Majesty has been understanding of your age and the peculiar situation in which you reside, but once you declare yourself publicly her pleasure may well be short-lived with any more evasion of your duties."

Harry nodded firmly. The last thing he wanted to do was annoy the Queen unnecessarily.

"Very well then," Andy said, taking a breath, "I will contact a solicitor for you and ensure that all necessary paperwork is ready for you… and we'd best keep a close eye on the ministry too."

"Huh? Why?" Harry asked, confused.

"This, Harry," She said, tapping the paper in her hand, "is _not_ normal. The Minister is playing games, likely at the behest of Lucius… and we both know who he is working for. I believe we can expect some of the more underhanded plays at the Minister's disposal. Likely he'll change the time and location of the hearing, probably do his best to isolate you during the proceedings. Whatever happens, Harry, do not lose your temper… at least not until all of our pieces are in place."

"I understand," Harry nodded, "I'll do my best."

She narrowed her eyes as she looked him over, "Do better than that. You will shortly be the public face of the Blacks, and a representative of Her Majesty. Your best must increase."

He nodded, swallowing, and she responded in kind with a sense of satisfaction.

"It's about time," She said with feeling, "I had honestly expected this to come out sooner. Albus didn't push nearly as hard as I expected… almost like he knew what would happen if he did."

Which, Andy supposed, was likely closer to the truth than she knew for certain.

"What are your plans between now and the hearing?" She asked, eyes drifting to the other youths in the room, and the quietly listening Dursleys.

"The headmaster wants me to stay inside," Harry admitted glumly.

"I didn't ask what the headmaster wanted, Harry, while you may not have declared yourself publicly yet, you are Regent Black and Sir Harry of Potter. The Headmaster has no control over you now, though I would suggest you consider him as an… advisor, if nothing else. The man is an accomplished politician, and that experience would serve your houses well."

Harry nodded firmly, "I don't know what next… I… I want to locate Potter Keep. I know it's empty, but it's still my family home."

Andromeda nodded, "Well the Goblins may be able to help with that. I'm afraid I don't know the location, most Wizarding properties are accessed through magical means so we don't always know exactly where they are, physically speaking, and it has been some time since your family lived there. Perhaps Sirius could help?"

"I've been talking with him, but he only knows the general area," Harry sighed, "It's actually along Hadrian's Wall somewhere near the East Coastline, but that still covers a lot of area."

"Indeed, especially since it's probably been warded and hidden away from normal eyes," Andy sighed, "well, check with the Goblins. Your parents vaults may have records, if nothing else."

"Ok, I'll do that."

Xander decided to speak up, "I'll help you get around, if you like, Harry. I'd love to see an old English castle that isn't haunted to bedrock, if it's ok with you?"

Harry grinned at him, "That's fine…. Uh, how did you get here anyway?"

Hermione groaned, Xander just grinned and walked over to the window and pointed. Harry looked, eyes widening, "I meant back to England… did you portkey on that bike?"

"Yup."

Andromeda glanced outside and sighed, "Oh Sirius. You didn't give a toy like that to a child…"

Xander shot her a dirty look, but decided against commenting.

Harry was biting his lip as he stared, "Does it… uh, does it fly? I had a dream once, about a flying motorcycle…"

"Yeah, Harry," Xander nodded, "It flies."

"I'm hardly surprised that you dreamt of such things either," Andromeda said, rolling her eyes. "Sirius snuck you out on his often enough, despite Lilly's constant threats to neuter him if she caught him doing so."

Looking mildly put out, she cast a nod to Xander's bike through the window, "I suppose that's his work?"

Xander grinned, "It is, along with some other guys. I understand he's working on a new and improved version for himself, of course."

"Of course he is," She answered nonplussed, "Oh well, if it keeps him out of trouble…"

"I'm really not sure anything can keep Sirius out of trouble," Xander snorted, then glanced at Harry, "You know, if you're coming out of the closet this summer, you'll be able to visit next year."

"Oi! Don't say it like that," Harry objected.

The look on Xander's face was anything but repentant, causing both Andromeda and Hermione to sigh deeply and speak at the same time.

"Boys."

Andromeda recovered first, "We'll I shall leave you to it. Harry, do not be late to the hearing. In fact, be early. Very early. I expect Albus will arrange for that himself, but if he doesn't and you need help getting there, contact me."

"I will."

"Good, now stay out of trouble until it's over," She told him, then sighed, "As best you can, if you please? And… good luck with the Goblins and Potter's Keep."

"I will, and thank you."

Andromeda nodded to Petunia before taking her leave, "I do apologize for invading your home, Mrs. Dursley. I will endeavor to minimize any future visits as much as is wizardly possible."

Petunia just nodded curtly, her face pinched as she seemed to want to say something but thought better of it. Andromeda took that time to step out the door and hurry off.

"Well," Xander said, "I suppose I'd better take Hermione home before her parents think she's eloped or something."

He ducked a slap from Hermione.

"Watch it, Xander, or I'll… I'll…" She said, searching for something to threaten him with.

He laughed at her, "Give it up, Her My Own Ninny, I tweak Wednesday's nose regularly. There's nothing you can do to scare me if she can't."

Hermione glowered at him, "I can convince her to play a game with you."

Xander winced involuntarily, "Fair point… though, frankly I'm not sure that would really be any different than normal for Wednesday."

There was that, Hermione supposed. It was rather annoying, dealing with Xander. He was immune to most of the threats she would use against Harry and Ron… dealing with Wednesday had a way of inoculating you to such things.

She sighed, "Just take me home."

Xander grinned, waving at Harry, "Give me a call if you need a lift. I'll be around."

"Thanks," Harry said, following them to the door.

He watched with a grin on his face as Xander hopped on the bike and Hermione gingerly followed. The roar when Xander kicked the engine over was sublime, it made him think of… home, somehow. As a Wizard he was able to ignore the notice me not charms as they kicked in and so Harry watched the bike roar down Privet Drive and lift off into the air while no one seemed to find anything remotely curious about it.

Magic was awesome.

* * *

Getting Hermione home took only a few minutes, the house being empty when they arrived.

"My parents are at the clinic," Hermione told him, "but thank you for coming when I asked, I know you had to cut off some of your time at home."

Xander shrugged, "with the bike now I can probably go back and forth, if I wanted, but I think I'll stick around a bit and see Harry's castle."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You do know it'll be some old abandoned pile of stones, right?"

"Still cool," Xander chuckled, "It's a _castle_."

"It's a Keep," She corrected him, "quite a different thing."

"It is?" Xander asked, confused, "I thought a Keep was part of a Castle?"

"Sometimes, but not always," She informed him, her tone taking on a familiar lecturing pattern, "Since it's called Potter Keep, rather than Potter Castle, I assume that it's likely more of a defended tower than a castle, but I suppose we'll have to see."

A smile played at Xander's lips, "We?"

"Well _of course_ I'm coming," She informed him firmly, "You'll just have to pick me up."

Xander laughed, "First we need to work out where it is, and that could take some doing it seems."

She sighed, a little sadly, "Yes. I hope it's not too hard. Harry needs the connections to his family, I think."

"I don't know if he needs it, but he wants it," Xander said, "so I hope he gets what he wants."

Xander checked his watch, "I've got to go, Herms. Going to book a room and…"

"We have a spare room here if you like," Hermione offered instantly.

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Shouldn't you check with your parents first?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "They won't mind, but it's up to you."

He shrugged, it didn't really matter much to him either way. He had the money for a room, but he wasn't going to be staying in it anyway so all he needed was a place to crash. He figured that Harry would be going to Gringotts the next day, unless he decided to keep his head down.

_Fat chance of that, if I know Harry_, Xander laughed.

"If your parents are cool with it, it's fine by me," Xander as he fished in his pocket for his spell phone. "I need to call Wednesday, though."

"Oh?" Hermione asked, amused, "She has you checking in?"

"No, she has my dog though," Xander corrected her, "and I really owe her for looking after Fenrir again this summer."

"I'm sure she will call in the favor in her own time," Hermione said with a grin.

"You have no idea," Xander mumbled under his breath, just out of her hearing. "No idea at all."


	119. Chapter 119

Disclaimer is in chapter 1. This is the last chapter I have, if anyone has a copy of this story that has more chapters, please contact me, I would like to read them, and post them here. This is the 117 chapter version, for some reason Chapter 110 had 111 and 112 chapters , I just posted them in separate chapters, thus making it 119 chapters total.

* * *

Xander spent the rest of the afternoon, after talking with Wednesday and Willow a bit, looking over his bike and making sure nothing had been shaken loose by the portkey trips. He was working on that when Hermione's parents returned home, their 7-series BMW almost startling him as it slid in behind him with only a whisper of the engine and tires on the pavement reaching his ears while he worked.

"What's this now? Xander, right?" Daniel Granger asked as he got out of the drivers side, looking over the bike. "Is that a real Indian?"

Xander grinned, looking up, "Yes sir, on both counts. Some friends put it together for me while I was at school last year as a gift."

"That's an impressive gift," Dan returned the grin as Hermione came down the stairs.

Emma was surprised at the appearance of their daughter, "Hermione, I didn't expect you home so early. Did the visit to Diagon go well?"

"Other than Xander breaking all sorts of rules and getting me angry, it went fine," Hermione responded, shooting a glare Xander's way.

Emma looked between the two, her eyes narrowing, "Tell me you did not ride home with him on that thing."

The silence and Hermione's sudden inability to look directly in her parent's eyes told the truth of that tale quicker than she could have if she wanted to.

"Hermione!" Emma scolded, "That… I can't believe…"

Xander was alternating between wincing and hiding a grin as he glanced at Dan, who seemed perturbed as well but not so much as Hermione's mother. "I don't suppose it would help to tell her that the bike flies and teleports, so we didn't take the surface roads home?"

Dan shook his head, looking at his wife as she visibly steamed, "No lad, I don't think that will do much good."

He looked down at the bike, "Flies? Really?"

Xander nodded, "And is loaded with safety features. It's pretty hard to injure yourself with, honestly."

"Well, that's a plus," Dan admitted, though I think we'll have to let Emma burn out before we tell her.

"Mom, I'm old enough to make my own decisions," Hermione countered, rolling her eyes and tapping her foot in annoyance.

Dan and Xander exchanged glances and shook their head.

"This isn't going to end well," Dan said, before speaking up, "Honey, Xander and I will head out and grab some takeout for supper."

Emma glared at him, but he didn't let that slow him as he grabbed Xander and retreated to the car. Hermione and her mother watched the car pull out in silence, then looked at one another in mutual annoyance.

"Men," Emma muttered.

"Boys," Hermione said at the same time.

The two stared at one another for a moment, then snickered.

"Ok, fine, you're old enough to make your own decisions," Emma sighed, "Tell me that you're at least being safe?"

"Mom!"

"I meant that you wore a helmet, Hermione," Emma rolled her eyes, "do we need to talk about the other?"

Hermione grumbled, "No we do not, but I didn't wear a helmet. I didn't get on that thing except that it was an emergency, and it's charmed to be safe so you don't need a helmet."

"I wish you'd wear one anyway," Emma sighed, "and what do you mean, an emergency?"

"Harry," Hermione let out in an exasperated tone.

"Ah," Emma said, understanding and finally walking up into the house. "Well, I'll make some tea and you can tell me about it.

Hermione nodded and joined her, leaving the now unattended Indian Chief motorcycle sitting in the driveway.

* * *

When Dan and Xander returned with the food, Hermione and Emma were discussing the Ministry across a pot of team and some biscuits.

"Ah, the cowards are back with the food, I see," Emma shot an arch look at Daniel as he cheerfully and unrepentantly dropped the food on the counter.

"Better part of valor, dear." He said simply as he started pulling Chinese takeout from the bags and separating it out.

"Don't look at me," Xander shrugged when Hermione shot him a look, "I take enough risks getting between you and Wednesday. If you think I'm going to mess with your mother, you're not as smart as people think you are."

Hermione huffed as Dan laughed openly.

"Smart lad."

"Hermione has asked me if Xander can stay in the spare room for a few days," Emma said, rolling her eyes.

"If it's a problem I can get a room at a hotel," Xander said.

"Nonsense," Dan said, shaking his head, "That's what the room is for."

"On other business, Hermione tells me that their friend Harry was attacked today," Emma scowled as she sipped her tea. "Apparently this little war of theirs is heating up."

Dan dropped some food on the table and heavily took a seat, "How serious do we need to take this?"

"I'd say very," Xander offered, "From what happened at the end of the year, it's going to go from a cold war to very hot with little to no warning."

"Well, isn't that just lovely," Dan said with a deceptively light tone. "Your thoughts, Hermione dear?"

"I don't know," She admitted. "I, and you, will be targets, though. That's certain. Being Harry's friend…."

"And being the smartest girl in school," Xander cut her off.

"Right," Hermione flushed a little," and that, makes me a high profile target. The adults may or may not notice me overly yet, but their children certainly have."

"Draco, Parkinson, Nott," Xander listed off, "basically most of the purebloods you've outscored… which is all of them, are likely to offer your name up as a target if it comes up… and it will, sooner or later."

Hermione nodded glumly, "The problem is that I'm safe most of the year. They're not going to risk going after a schoolgirl under the protection of Headmaster Dumbledore. They might try to make my life miserable in other ways, but a direct attack is unlikely."

Xander nodded in agreement.

"You," She continued, looking at her parents, "are the ones at risk once this stops being a cold war. You don't have even the most basic of wards, and we couldn't get permission from the Ministry for them anyway."

Dan and Emma exchanged glances before Emma spoke, "What are you suggesting?"

"I don't know," Hermione admitted, "This is more me realizing just how close the problem is. For Dementors to get to Harry, and his home is warded… it's a big deal."

"I can offer a place to hole up if you need it," Xander said, "but it's in California."

"I think," Dan said, "If it comes to that, we can arrange our own place. We're not hard up, we could sell the practice I suppose…"

Emma's eyes widened, surprised by that suggestion, "Dan…"

"Staying here as targets, is not any way to live to see our grandchildren," Dan said with a hint of a grin flashed in Hermione's direction.

"Dad!"

"But that's for later… though perhaps I will float the idea to a few people I know to be in the market," He said with a heavy sigh. "We could rebuild later, I suppose."

"If you do," Xander offered up, "run the sale through Hermione's name. The Goblins can help with that."

"What? Why?" Hermione asked, looking up.

"Taxes. The Ministry only snags like five percent off Muggle-borns," Xander said, "I know because I have to exchange money fairly often, and that was covered. Hermione is exempt from regular taxation on sale of assets, though if she takes a job in the normal world she still pays the normal payroll stuff."

"That's a big difference," Daniel admitted, surprised.

"Could probably save you that five percent too, if Harry gets involved," Xander said, "the ministry is pretty biased in favor of purebloods, and while Harry isn't exactly, his family name basically overrides that."

"How do you know all that?" Hermione asked, eyes narrowed, "Surely not just from exchanging money?"

"No, I get some lessons in business from Gomez," He admitted, frowning. "It can be hard, sometimes, to figure out what is good advice from him and what would only work for an Addams, but he's surprisingly accurate with facts."

Hermione, who had never met the elder Addams other than in passing at school, just nodded without really understanding.

"Well, it's a lot to think on," Daniel said, "but we will think on it. If things get worse, you'll keep us apprized?"

Hermione nodded, "Keep my Spell Phone again, I'll use Harry's or Xander's."

Xander coughed, "Actually, I made these up over the summer."

He handed a spell phone across the table to each of the Grangers. "I added English phonetic spelling to the Runic dialer so you don't have to learn ancient Norse to use them. The numbers are set for Emma Granger and Dan Granger respectively. You can shorten them if you like, I'll show Hermione how later."

"Xander! Thank you!" Hermione launched herself at him, giving him a powerful hug.

"No problem," Xander grinned, returning the hug.

"Yes, lad, thank you. What do we owe you for these?" Daniel asked.

"Don't worry about it. It's mostly scrap brass and bronze anyway," Xander said, "and a few minutes work. I'm not sure how long they'll hold a magical charge, but if Hermione's didn't conk out on you last year, these should be good. Leave them around Hermione when she's home, though. That should keep the runes topped off."

Dan nodded, "well, upkeep on a daughter is a little expensive just to charge a phone, but I suppose if we must…"

"Daddy!"

Xander just grinned and leaned back as father and daughter began to bicker, neither clearly meaning it.

He thought about his new sister and wondered if she would grow up in a better environment than he did. He wasn't really complaining, of course. His parents had been far from ideal, he knew that, but they'd cared in their own way and did well enough by him. He just hoped that his sister would get to enjoy the sort of environment that Hermione had.

It felt _right_.


End file.
